Yet Another Overlord Fanfic
by Maglad
Summary: As Ainz gets busy running the Sorcerous Kingdom of Nazarick, a white city appears to aid the Dragonic Kingdom in their darkest hour!
1. Chapter 1 - Three Holy Sensei

Yet Another Overlord Fanfic

Under the trees of the Great Sundered Forest, southeast of the Dragonic Kingdom, a woman was running.

'Just kill them!'

The telepathic [Message] carried such a clear chuckle that the fleeing woman couldn't help but be offended, even while running for her life.

'It's not that easy, you know!? These are real monsters! They're scary!'

'I'm scrying on you right now, remember? I can see them, and they're just goblins for goodness' sake! Just kick them or use a spell, anything will do!'

'Fine!'

A moment later, the cloaked woman spun mid-race, her inertia causing her to slide a few feet backwards, leaving visible, deep marks on the soft forest floor.

'I bet that looked pretty cool. Are you recording this?'

'Sure, hold on, let me alt tab and check. Of course I'm not recording this!'

"Fuuu... _~la_ "

The woman let out a long sigh of dissatisfaction. It sounded very melodious and charming, but it was still basically a whine.

She raised a delicate hand. There was a fine golden chain stretched from her middle finger ring all the way to a long bejeweled bracelet, just barely visible under the cloak.

In the next moment, she aimed it at the goblins and chanted a spell.

"[Sleep]! _~fa_ "

A sudden burst of multi-colored flower petals came forth right in the middle of the goblins, completely covering them for just a moment before disappearing as suddenly as it began.

The goblins slowed down and closed their eyes, then fell down as one.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

'Sleep? You're max level and that's what you use?'

The voice in the [Message] definitely sounded like it was about to burst into laughter.

'They're just goblins.'

'Oooh, NOW they're just goblins!'

'Do you want to trade jobs with me?'

'No thanks, monsters are scary.'

"Fuuu... _~la"_

She sighed, then pulled down her hood and shook her head for a moment.

Her jet black hair flew in all directions before she pulled it back behind her. Finally, her face was exposed to sunrise's gentle light.

There was no other way to describe her hair but as midnight black, of a black so glossy that light seemed to bounce off it whenever she moved.

'What are you doing now?'

Her friend inquired through their telepathic link.

'Should I kill them?'

'Eww, why?'

'Because they attacked me? Because of loot?'

'You really want to loot some goblins?'

'Its a good chance to see what they drop.'

'Alright. Just stab them and keep moving.'

'Gross... I don't want to get close to them. How about a fireball?'

'Really now? For three sleeping goblins? Why didn't you used a fireball to begin with?'

Even through their link, the brunette could tell her friend was laughing.

"I'm gonna use a fireball ~fa"

She actually sung the words, rather than sending them through the [Message] link, then remembered she had to do so.

'I'm using [Fireball]'

'Are you sure that's enough? Why not use a meteor swarm or a pyroclastic cloud, just to be sure?'

'Isn't that overkill?'

'So's a fireball! Just stab them would you?'

'I'm using it now.'

'Whatever.'

A fire rose bloomed on top of the sleeping goblins, there were three smoking corpses at the bottom of a small crater once it faded away, with some petals dancing in the air.

'That was... flowery.'

'I modded it with my [Signature Spell] trick.'

'Really? You felt the need to turn a fireball into a whirlwind of rose petals?'

'Golden_Ballade is an artist you know? Her spells are both flashy and elegant.'

'Y- we are not playing anymore!'

'Are you sure you don't want to trade jobs with me?'

'So, did they drop anything?'

Her friend was quick to change the subject.

'...not that I can see.'

'No crystals, no money, nothing?'

'No.'

'Not even a copper piece?'

'Nothing, zero. The bodies haven't sublimated either. Should I pick up their weapons?'

'So they did drop something.'

'Not really 'drop' the way you think. The bodies are still there, there's no items floating near the ground. It's the stuff they were using.'

'That's fairly realistic. I thought you didn't want to approach them, though?'

'Fire greatly improves thed their smell. As for looting their gear, this is reality, remember?'

'Right.'

Two poorly made stone swords and one heavy branch later, the brunette resumed walking towards the forest's edge.

A few minutes later, the forest cleared out.

"Oh ~fa"

'What is it?'

'I arrived. There's the village.'

 _~O~_

Two Weeks Earlier-

The general rushed everyone out and closed the throne room doors behind him as quickly as he dared to, then leaned against them. The doors, massive slabs of marble, orichalcum, soulsteel, starmetal and 'ordinary' mithril, sent a mighty shiver all along the hallway as they closed.

"General, I must report to the Exalted Ones... sir, are you alright?"

Kubera approached him on her way back from patrol.

Her worry was understandable.

General Li, an 8' tall leonal guardinal, was one of the three NPC overseers created specifically to run and defend Tengoku Junzi if the guild members were unavailable.

The idea was that, even if the guild members were offline, the overseers would not only continue to collect taxes from the city shops, but also restock them as needed, respawn killed NPCs, and take care of maintenance for both the city and the golden citadel at the center of the it.

Indeed, while many guilds used mighty sky fortresses, impregnable underground tombs, or even a roaming zaratan's back as theit guild's base, Sancta Sanctorum had made their base into a open city, where visitors could come and go as they pleased, enjoying all of the guild house's amenities for a very reasonable fee.

Therefore, the general's rank was above that of every other NPC in the free city of Tengoku Junzi, including the Four Heavenly Kings who were in charge of security. Equal to that of the other two overseers, and second only to the guild members themselves.

He had led the defenses of the city against enemy raids on multiple occasions, and never before shown the slightest worry or hesitation.

That's why, to see such incarnation of regal courage, propriety and tradition trembling like a kitten under the rain, naturally caused Kubera's gentle heart to tremble.

"T-their excellencies... The Exalted Ones are arguing."

It was one of the throne room planetar guards who finally spoke.

The room seemed to spin around Kubera as she dropped to her knees.

"This isn't my fault!"

A beautiful black-haired angel cried out, her wings spread out behind her in response to her instinctive need to appear larger than she was.

Of course, saying 'a beautiful angel' its somewhat of a redundancy. There's practically not a single person who wouldn't naturally think of angels as beautiful beings. Even the devil has good looks.

No, perhaps he has specially good looks?

This particular angel, meanwhile, was flushed red with anger.

Her short one piece outfit, which normally hid her face completely, had its hood piece pulled back to expose her face to the room. Her long. midnight-black hair fell behind her all the way to her calves.

Her short white dress exposed her legs (which was to say, over half her total height) from the beginning of her thighs to the tip of her toes, with naught but a few large, thin, elegant golden rings hanging from her right ankle.

"Well, who else could it be? I didn't do it! ~sol"

Her antagonist was a perfectly tanned golden beauty with a dynamite body, large dove wings and flaming red hair. Her voice every word was a melody, her every phrase, a song.

Her hair was 'normal' in every aspect but one. It hung down from two long ponytails at the top of her head, like rivers of perfectly feminine examples for what hair should be like. Soft, glossy, light and sweetly scented. So far it could be said that it was wonderful but still 'normal' hair.

However, it was the color of a raging fire. Shedding light like a bright pyre, it looked as if someone had used a filler tool to replace whatever color her hair was meant to be with 'raging fire'.

It was the effect of a cash shop's cosmetic item that was quite popular with the owners of high-end machines because it would lag most other users, giving them an edge.

'Unfair? If you don't like it, lower your graphics to minimum and stop your whining!'

This was the mentality of a shameless powergamer. She wasn't breaking any rules, but she knew how to stretch and bend them 'till they screamed!

Covered in nothing but jewelry from head to toes, she looked so dazzlingly elegant and sensual that even a dead dog would stand up to watch in awe.

The way her jewelry replaced her clothes, she looked like the exotic princess on the cover illustration for an Arabian Nights-meets-Conan-meets-Warlord Of Mars novel.

If you wanted to be pedantically accurate about it, her jewelry was actually hyper-customized high-tier items of clothing, each of which had their fabric cropped, shrunk, modified or deleted down to the very limits of what the PG-13 universe of Yggdrasil would allow.

This did not subtract one iota from their potency, of course. After all, it was all nothing but cosmetic changes.

"Please stop, you don't think any of us would really do such a thing, right?"

The last of the trio was clearly the mirror image of the first of them, except that she was wearing a long sleeved, full body white dress that covered her from tip to toe without exposing a inch of skin, while still showing off her figure thanks to the way it hugged her curves.

If you looked at both twins, however, it was clear that this was the most exuberant one, somehow. By about 3 extra inches on both top and bottom, and 1 less inch in the middle.

Of course, pointing this out to her sister would get you killed. So don't.

The only concession she gave to anything like exposure was the deep cut on her dress' back, and it was obvious that her large wings made it absolutely necessary.

Just a few minutes ago, all three of them had been holding hands in the middle of a most quiet atmosphere within the guild's throne room. After all, what else was the end of the world, if not the most solemn of occasions?

 _~O~_

23:59:58

23:59:59

24:00:00

24:00:01

24:00:02

Doctor's_Orders opened her eyes. Her real name was Mako Tsun, a 27 years old Industrial Arts teacher. Her character was an angel cleric superbly specced in healing. She was considered one of the top 3 healers in the server, to the point that she was often the first person a raid leader would try to invite, and she had her character inspected more than once by Yggdrassil staff for suspicion of macro-abusing.

She was still in the throne room, with her sister holding her right hand, and their best friend holding her left.

Their hands were warm.

After a few moments of mild confusion, full fledged terror and -complete- confusion followed.

The NPCs fled the room and closed the doors behind them as Ren and Lyann argued about whatever it was that had just happened.

Eventually of course, they managed to calm down.

"So... any useful ideas?"

Celi_Malefactor was Ren Tsun, currently the angel in the coquettish short dress. She was talking while looking at her feet. Despite being on her bare feet and able to feel the cold of the marble floor, she was not the least bit uncomfortable.

Apparently, her angelic body had as much sensitivity as her human one, but was as enduring and resistant as it was in Yggdrassil.

"I tried contacting the GM, but there was no answer."

Mako said so while pressing the tip of her right index finger against her lower lip.

Ren observed that Mako's wings seemed to twitch nervously, and wondered if her own would give up her mood in a similar manner.

"If this is as real as it feels, I don't think there's a GM to answer. ~fa"

Lyann was feeling Ren's left wing with a hand, then tried to pluck a feather from it, unsuccessfully. Her Yggdrassil character was named Golden_Ballade, and she was a bard, for lack of a better term, turning music into power to help her friends or smite her foes.

"Hey!"

Ren winced and twisted away slightly.

"Games don't hurt. ~fa"

The redhead commented with a smirk

"Right. You could still have tried to pluck one of your own feathers, though."

They stared at each other for a moment, then Mako pulled out a staff from her inventory, and held it with both hands.

"Inventory is working."

Tthe exuberant black-haired angel commented.

"How did you do that...?"

Ren found that she could simply slip her hand into one of her pockets to access her inventory, but other than that, it felt surprisingly natural.

"In that case... ~la"

The redheaded angel tried to use her bard skills, and sure enough, a melodious note came forth, then everyone glowed golden for a moment with a 'buff on' notification.

Again, they looked at each other.

 _~O~_

The meeting room for Sancta Sanctorum was modeled as an ancient senate, shaped like a half-moon with rising platforms surrounding a speaker's podium. At its peak, the guild had well over 170 members. Therefore, the round table room given to every guild as default became impractical, and had to be changed into a form which would allow for everyone to seat in at the same time, as well as able to see whoever was speaking as more than a dot in the distance.

Of course, right now it was nothing but a needlessly large, overwhelmingly lonely room.

Ren had the servants remove the speaker's podium, and replaced it with a long dining table on top of the center stage. It was still too big for the three players, but with the additions of the generals Li, Subutai and Burlaug, it felt like a rather comfy family table.

Of course, the generals were somewhat confused and couldn't relax in the presence of their creators.

The head of the table was currently empty, and sitting on the right side of the table, starting from closest to the head seat to furthest down:

Celi_Malefactor, Golden_Ballade and Doctor's_Orders

On the left side of the table, again starting from closest to the head seat, were the three NPC generals who oversaw the functioning of the city and citadel:

Subutai, Li and Burlaug.

Subutai is slightly under 6' tall, with a eagle's head covered by white feathers. Even though his lore, as given to him by Golden_Ballade, described him as an incredibly creative and intelligent general, unstoppable on the attack and capable of handling forces hundreds of miles apart with perfect efficiency, the truth was that Sancta Sanctorum had never actually gone to war before, and thus he remained largely untested in battle, using his intellect to help run the city and citadel, instead.

Li is a 8' tall leonal guardinal, a gold and white warrior with a lion's head, who had defended Tengoku Junzi every time it had come under attack. As such, he was very experienced on defensive warfare, and was deeply concerned with the state of the city and its defenses.

As if to prove that there is an exception to every rule, Burlaug was a burly but intellectual dwarf. Small round glasses sat at the tip of his nose. His hair and braid are clean and carefully braided. He dressed in fine clothes, and was the NPC largely responsible for the continued well being and happiness of the inhabitants and visitors to the Free City of Tengoku Junzi.

"Please don't be so nervous."

Celi_Malefactor spoke gently to the NPCs, who now sat restlessly before their creators like children that had been caught being naughty. Her wings fluttered only once, then readjusted behind her back, showing that she, too, was a little nervous.

"A-as the Exalted One commands!"

Subutai shouted and immediately stiffened even further.

"That is... please listen for now."

Doctor's_Orders said in as soothing a tone as she could manage.

"Yes!"

"Of course!"

"Please, go ahead."

Burlaug seemed to be the calmer one, but in truth, his heels were quickly tapping on the floor.

"As you know, we are facing a strange situation. We are _not_ blaming you, we simply do not know, and that is why we wanted to ask if you knew anything about it. ~fa"

Golden_Ballade spoke while trying to sound as calm as possible. She reached across the table, and gently supported her hands on top of Li's.

"No, until Kubera's report, I had no idea."

Li answered calmly. It was part of his nature to be as calm and regal as possible outside of battle. To need comfort by one of his creators called forth on his sense of duty.

"Alright, then. Subutai, Burlaug, have you noticed our current situation yet? Tengoku Junxi is no longer sitting in the Golden Plains. We have been moved into the mountains, instantly and without a single one of us noticing so. Do you know anything about it? ~la"

The hawk and the dwarf both shook their heads as they denied to have any knowledge of these events.

"Alright, please, give us a moment. I suposse we should go ahead, then? ~la"

Golden_Ballade first spoke to the NPCs, then addressed her friends.. They nodded, and Celi_Malefactor replaced her as the speaker.

"What do you think of us?"

"You are our creators, the Flawless, Exalted Ones."

"Full of grace and beauty. No, you are the very definition of Grace and Beauty."

"Your intellect and wisdom are only surpassed by your mercy. You are the ideal rulers."

The NPCs seemed to be in agreement about their creators. They all seemed to state their opinions as a matter of fact.

The three players looked at each other. Doctor's_Orders was blushing from head to toe, while Golden_Ballad and Celi_Malefactor were either looking at the NPCs or staring at the roof, hoping that a perfect answer would just materialize there if she just wished for it harder.

Then, Golden_Ballade spoke to them.

"Once upon a time, a man proposed a particular vision of the world. He said that all living beings are prisoners in a cave, staring at its wall, unable to turn their heads or do anything else. Truth was right behind them, always shining unto them, but people can only see their shadows on the cavern wall, and for them that is reality, that is everything there is. ~fa"

Golden_Ballade took a pause, drank a little bit of water, and continued. It bothered her a little that she couldn't help but sing at such a serious time, but her character was a songstress, and by default, her voice came out as a melody whenever she spoke.

"The truth is, Doctor's_Orders, Celi_Malefactor and myself, are very much akin to the truth behind the people's heads. ~la"

"Of course."

"Obviously, the Exalted Ones are the highest existence!"

Burlaug simple nodded at his friends words. It was obvious to all of them, after all.

"I wonder if you are understanding things as we hoped you would..."

Celi_Malefactor had her doubts, but Golden_Ballade kept talking.

"Before, we were truth, but now we too have become prisoners in the cave. We used to live in a higher world, from where we created and affected yours. We wore the bodies you see before you so we could interact with you, our beloved children. However, since the moment Tengoku Junzi was moved, we became unable to go back to our original world. We are now as you are and we do not know why. ~ "

"The Exalted Ones, prisoners? Inconceivable!"

Subutai stood up, enraged without knowing with whom or what. When he saw his creators recoil back from him, he immediately sat down again.

"As you've guessed, we are no longer immortal. This... to be honest, we are quite unused to this state. Afraid, even."

Celi_Malefactor spoke softly, her arms crossed on the table.

"Impossible! No harm will fall on the Exalted Ones while I am here!"

General Li roared loudly. The player girls stiffened for a moment, but then they smiled, visibly relieved.

"Can... can I ask something?"

Burlaug held his belt buckle with both hands as he looked at the table.

"Of course. ~la"

"Why did you create us?"

"Are you asking about the world, or about your place on it? Do you want to know about your name?"

Doctor's_Order looked at Burlaug with a smile.

"I... I would like to know about myself. If it would not be too daring a question."

"I as well."

"As would I."

Burlaug spoke first, but then Li and Subutai quickly followed.

"I understand that this is a very important topic for you, and indeed I promise we will go over it at a later time, but I fear that we have other, more important topics to go over right now. ~fa"

Golden_Ballade cleared her throat, and waited for the NPCs to object or say anything else. After a few moments, she continued.

"To begin with, on suggestion from Doctor's_Order, we wish for you to use our real names. The names that we used when we were still 'truth'. Is that alright with you? ~la"

"It would be an honor!"

"Indeed, the Exalted Ones are the very example of generosity."

"Is this really alright? To be allowed to hear our gods true names is already such an honor, but to use them... I think it would not be strange to die of joy."

Li, Subutai and Burlaug made their opinions clear. In fact, it was easy to see how excited they were about the current course of events.

"Then, let us go from left to right. I am named Ren, family name is Tsun. I am... I was a math teacher. Incidentally. It is nice to finally, truly meet you. Please refer to me as Ren from this day onwards."

Celi_Malefactor stood up, and bowed deeply. Her wings stretched behind her for a moment as she did so, then folded back down as she stood up.

As she straightened up, she realized all three NPCs were also bowing while standing.

"It is a immense honor!"

"So Celi_Malefactor sama had such a beautiful name! Tsun-sama! No, O-Ren-sama!"

Li roared his greeting.

"This insignificant servant feels both overwhelmed and grateful."

"I- I appreciate your feelings, but to hear you call me like that is a little... at least drop the 'O' before my name! And use my name, not my surname."

"Yes, Ren sama!"

"Thank you."

Ren smiled, relieved. Then it was Golden_Ballade's turn to introduce herself.

"My turn now, then. My true name is Lyann Du Lumiere. Lyann means 'singable', and Du Lumiere means 'of the light'. Together it would mean 'Song of Light'. Please call me Lyann, or Lumiere, and don't add any sama to it, alright? ~la"

"As expected from a Exalted One! Such a meaningful name! But to refer to you without proper honorifics is a little..."

Subutai looked to his 'siblings', and they nodded their agreement.

"We hope Lumiere sama will forgive us, but that is impossible."

They all agreed on this.

"Then, at least call me by my name? You are like my children, so you using my family name to talk to me feels a little cold, you know? ~fa"

"Lyann sama!"

"Lyann sama!"

"Lyann sama!"

"I guess that'll do. By the way, I was a history teacher. ~la"

It was finally the turn of Doctor's_Orders. The last angel at the table bowed gently but deeply, and spoke without rising her head.

"Mako Tsun. Please call me Mako. I hope you will take care of me from now on. In our original world, I was an Industrial Arts teacher."

"Of course, Mako sama!"

"It goes without saying, our duty is to protect the Exalted Ones."

"To be able to use your holy names. Truly the paragons of kindness."

Mako finally straightened up, and gestured for the NPCs to sit down, then did so herself.

At this point, Lyann started talking again.

"Alright, this meeting had several objectives. We were unable to learn why we are here, and unable to leave, but we already introduced ourselves. Which leaves two more topics to talk about. Firstly. Do your loyalties lie with us? ~ "

"Of course, Lyann sama!"

"There is no need to ask."

"Even in a diminished state, you are still our creators. Perfect beings who embody all grace, wisdom and compassion. Anything but absolute loyalty is heresy."

Mako blushes brightly, and her wings almost closed around her to hide her, while Ren looked away in embarrassment. Lyann was speechless.

After a few moments, Ren began to speak.

"That is one of the important points of this meeting. We understand now that you think of us as perfect beings, but we are now no different from yourselves. You can blame our new 'diminished states' if you want, but we are not infallible, nor are we unbeatable. That is why..."

All three angels stood up, and stretched a hand towards their creations. They had clearly agreed to do so beforehand.

"""Please rule Tengoku Junzi with us, as our equals. Let us begin our new lives in truth and friendship! Burlaug-sama, Li-sama, and Subutai-sama!"la""

In the end, the NPCs agreed to assist in the government of Tengoku Junzi. It had always been their task, and they could see no greater honor than to continue doing so with their beloved creators by their side. They begged in tears for their creators to talk to them without any honorifics, though.

 _~O~_

In the Golden Citadel, there were almost 100 luxurious suites dedicated as the guild members personal rooms.

Lyann, Mako and Ren had a few of them re purposed as offices. The NPCs had their own rooms and quarters, so other than that there was no great changes. The rooms designated as the personal offices of the Exalted Ones were right next to each other in the center of the citadel, so they could easily visit and consult with each other whenever they felt like it.

Also, it seemed important to keep their sleeping quarters and their work places apart.

Burlaug knocked at the door of his creator's office, Doctor's_Orders. No, he had to correct himself. Mako sama's office.

He also added a 'kami' in between her name and title, but he knew his kind and caring creator would not be happy if he ever said it out loud.

"Come in, please."

"Excuse me, Mako sama. These are the reports from the scouts that just came in."

Burlaug entered the room, and respectfully bowed before her desk.

"Please leave give them to me. Burlaug?"

"Yes, Mako sama?"

"Your job is a very important one. There was no need to come here just to deliver the scouts report. Is there anything else you need?"

"No, Mako sama. Thank you for receiving me."

Mako shook her head softly, and thanked him again with a smile.

Truthfully, there was another reason.

Burlaug simply enjoyed to be able to look at his creator. Mako was all things beautiful before his eyes, and while he was incredibly grateful for whatever it was that 'trapped' her and the other Exalted Ones together with him and the other NPCs in this now blessed world, he was unwilling to give up this secret ultimate joy to anyone else.

Besides, the Exalted Ones used the term 'vulnerable' to refer to their current situation.

They had been perfect beings, forced to descend from the perfect 'world of truth' unto this much lowlier world. They could be harmed, and even killed now.

This thought terrorized him. It plagued his every waking moment, and kept him awake at night.

To allow anyone else into the presence of his beloved creator was a trying experience for Burlaug. To actually send someone else, someone not him, to her presence... to her vulnerable presence... he hated that thought.

He closed the door and stood outside of Mako's office for a moment. He glared at the guards. They were the highest tier celestial there was. Every swing of their swords would end with a head rolling on the floor, every arrow shot would lodge itself inside a heart.

Paragon of good and duty, completely incorruptible exemplars of good.

"Completely inadequate. Insufficient."

If possible, he would want to stand there himself, but Mako kami sama had personally assigned him to his tasks.

Even while agreeing to work 'with them', neither him nor his colleagues considered themselves as anything but sacrificial pawns for the Exalted One's sake.

He directed another look at the solars outside his deity's office.

"Completely insufficient."

He grumbled lowly, and left, from time to time turning around to gaze towards his god's office door.

 _~O~_

Coming up... To Rule One's Own. We'll take a look at Ainz & company as they begin their rule on E Rantel.

Author Notes:

I'm not a native english speaker and happen to have terminal, chronic glaucome, which left me 99.95% blind, plus other such actually good excuses, but if you find any errors, do tear me up a new one. I'll look at any criticism with grateful 99.95% blind eyes and nod. Seriously, do let me know of any hard mistakes, thank you.

I thought long and hard about a intro for this first chapter. I had nearly 2 pages worth of it when I last checked, before deleting it all and writing this instead. I will however say that I struggled long and hard about the way this fanfic would go. To give you examples of what once was, these are some of the paths I wrote and deleted before picking this path in the end:

1- Ainz tries using [Message] when he goes outside. In the LN and the WN, nothing happens, but this time, it does. Someone answers him, so their stories start together. A friend told me "Ainz is already OP, I don't wanna see the story of OP being UBER OP". So it was scratched.

2- The new arrivals pop up in the Great Forest of Tob a few days after Nazarick pops up north of Carne Village. Things would play out much the same until we got to the 4th volume of the LN, where Ainz would find out the lizardmen had their own protectors. Because conflict. But I decided to scrap it as well since I hate when OCs fight it out with the cannon characters without getting to know them first.

3- The OCs arrive, but not Ainz. But honestly I said to a fanfic writer "dude, the whole reason I am reading fanfics is to read more about Ainz & co. I don't give a fuck about your original characters". So it would make me a cynic to go down that path.

In the end, I decided to write events like this: A theoretical volume 10, where yes, my OCs have their own adventures, while Ainz does his own thing, and they will meet much later. So it has both original characters and Nazarick. Oh, know that I'm going with the nicer Ainz from the webnovel rather than the way he's in the light novel. I always felt that the author turned up the grimdarkness to _Warhammer 40k_ levels in revenge for the LN editor making him take out the sex jokes.

For example, in the web novel, Arche, the wizard girl from Vol 7 is made into Shalltear's sex toy for a while before working for Ainz and earning the right to live in the 6th floor together with her sisters. This is different from the Light novel, the manga or the anime, so if you are gonna get offended about spoilers, just don't.

I present to you, _Yet another overlord fanfic,_ I decided to keep the japanese honorifics because it felt weird to read a Overlord story without them. I hope you enjoy it.


	2. Chapter 2 - To Rule One's Own

Chapter 2

To Rule One's Own

"Fumu... I see."

Ainz put down the book he had been reading since the previous day's morning. Roman Architecture. It was not just a engineering book (which is what he had honestly hoped for), but also a history book with plenty of footnotes by the author.

This actually made it a lot easier to digest than a coarse and dry engineering book would have been. He should have been grateful for it, but no one could be grateful for things they did not know.

Still, the book suggested several ideas to him. The roman empire was older than the poorer dark ages than followed it.

The city of E-Rantel, which he now owned, had technology and architecture reminiscent of the dark ages, but the capital of the empire had a higher level of civilization which made heavy use of magic to fuel hygiene, wealth and safety. There was a magical academy, well thought out and well laid sewers, gryphon riders patrolled the sky, and city guard patrols included magic casters as a matter of fact.

Had something caused a Dark Age in this world? He had just assumed that the technological level in the kingdom of Re-Estize was how a 'typical fantasy world' should be like, but he was now realizing that this thinking was wrong, fueled by his historical ignorance and the preconceptions implanted unto him by his many years of fantasy gaming.

Well, it couldn't be helped. He was a salaryman, not a history teacher.

"Bring me more books like this one."

He addressed the homunculus maid that was his personal assistant for the day. It was the duty each of them looked forth to the most, and the maid was more than happy to do his will.

She gracefully curtsied and left, her small black shoes making soft 'tap tap' sounds on the marble floor as she head towards the regal stairs leading down, passing the guards without exchanging words with them, and heading unto the library on the tenth floor.

The library had dozens of book shelves, but while many of the objects in them were actual books, most were book-like items. That is to say, things that would be necessary for some quests or as crafting materials.

Titus Annaeus Secundus, chief librarian of Nazarick, was engaged in conversation with Fluder Paradyne, a human with a very special status as the first and only disciple of Ainz himself.

"How can I assist thou?"

The chief librarian greeted the maid and immediately offered his help. The maids were either working on their duties, or resting in preparation for their most important duty of working directly under Ainz. Therefore, it was easy for Titus to guess that she was there on a errand for their great master.

"Ainz sama wishes for more books on Architecture."

"Please wait a moment."

Titus words were directed both towards the maid, and Fluder both. He bowed briefly and left towards the book shelves.

The maid and Fluder ignored each other, the former waiting perfectly still, the latter continuing to read from the tower of books on the table.

A few feet behind Fluder, a Death Knight stood like a statue. His empty eyes focused on the maid for a moment, and went back to Fluder, then straight ahead once more.

~O~

'With whom could I talk about this?'

Momon was musing on the technological differences between the kingdom of Re-Estize and the Baharuth empire while walking down the market streets of E-Rantel.

Comparing the dirty street and shoddy stalls, with all their filth, mangy dogs and rotting vegetable bits against the clean and organized roman markets he had been reading about a few days ago made him more and more curious about it.

As Satoru Suzuki, he was no architect, but he was confident that he had finally found something to which he could apply his salaryman skill set. That was, project management and administration.

As Ainz Ooal Gown, he has plenty of skillful followers and a near infinite, if mindless, workforce.

Mare in particular was already acquainted with construction work, and to some extent, so was Cocytus after rebuilding the lizardmen's village into a small-to-medium city.

He smiled to himself under his helmet as he thought on how dependable Mare had turned out to be. His druidic powers were meant to represent the might of nature, but were simply all too useful for urban renovation and innovation.

 _[Soften Earth and Stone]_ can turn stone to earth or earth to sand, instantly clearing a field from any and all rocks on it, leaving it ready for the farmer's seeds.

 _[Wood Shape]_ can turn a tree trunk, extra logs, or any pile of wooden debris for that matter, into perfect wooden planks or whatever shape one may desire. It is immensely useful for construction, either to produce materials, shape wooden molds, or even sculptures if the caster wants to.

 _[Plant Growth]_ can turn freshly seeded fields into fully grown orchards, and boost harvest yield immensely. It couldn't be used too often, least the terrain be drained of nutrients, but it was still immensely useful.

 _[Transmute Rock to Mud to Rock]_ turns rocky terrain into soft mud, and once that mud is poured into a mold, it can then be turned back into solid stone. No, not just 'back into solid stone, but into any stone one may desire, such as diorite, granite or quartz, all of which are harder than steel, and thus nearly impossible to work with given this world's technology.

 _[Ironwood]_ turns regular wood into yet another material stronger than steel and much lighter, to boot. Since "made of stronger and lighter stuff than titanium" was the eternal excuse of mecha shows, Ainz wondered if he could make his own magical Gundam one day?

And while he certainly preferred stone buildings to wooden ones, there was no disadvantage to them if Mare could use [Ironwood] on them once they were built. Something as flimsy looking as a wooden palisade became a truly indestructible barrier.

Not to mention, weapons and armors made of wood could be shaped into whatever form an artist desired, then turned into a material rivaling mithril and adamantite, with 1/8 the weight.

 _[Move Earth]_ was already Mare's signature spell. He used it to set the foundations of their base in the Great Forest of Tob, cover the walls of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick back when they had just arrived into this world, and later collapse the kingdom's fortresses after the massacre on Kadzu plains.

Digging massive trenches, flattening or creating hills in an instant... it allows Mare to reshape the terrain in nearly any way he wished.

Sadly, [ _Create Spring]_ was a shaman spell, not a druid one, or Ainz would have pockmarked the avenues and walls of E-Rantel with hundreds of fountains in the image of all his friends.

It would be really convenient for the population to draw fresh, clean and cool water whenever they wished to, but they may have dodged a bullet there.

They were a hair's breadth away from having their streets taken over by sculptures of the 41 supreme beings, almost all of them monsters and fiends of inhuman appearance.

Surely, Bukubukuchagama never thought his little "trap" joke character would be so immensely useful to Nazarick.

Such were the thoughts on Momon's head when he spotted the person in question just a hundred feet further down the street.

~O~

Mare was, by far, E-Rantel's favorite among all of Ainz Ooal Gown's minions. He was gentle, slightly timid, always helpful, a hard worker, and everyone agreed that 'her' cuteness would evolve into stunning beauty, in time.

To boost Mare's popularity even further, he had been busy improving buildings and streets all across E-Rantel almost from the very first day Ainz Ooal Gown took over as their new king.

Right now. Mare was driving a massive wagon pulled by six iron golems horse-shaped iron golems. The wagon was loaded to bursting with hexagonal slobs of diorite, quartz and granite, and once Mare used [ _Move Earth and Rock]_ to turn the street ahead of him unto a 5' deep, perfectly smooth path made of layers of clay, gravel and sand, the skeleton workers would cover it with the stone hexagons to create a enduring new road.

Like this, Mare was making record time transforming roads and streets that would turn into a sea of mud whenever it rained, into attractive roman-style roads and streets with perfect drainage, far superior to those anywhere else in the world.

~O~

Momon raised his hand to greet Mare across the length of the street, and Mare immediately hopped off the wagon and headed towards him.

"Oh, Momon sama! What can I do for you today?"

"Good morning, Mare dono. I see you are working hard as usual."

"Ah, yes! Once we reach all across the market district, the Sorcerer's Road will be complete!"

The _Sorcerer's Road would_ then stretch all the way from Nazarick to E-Rantel, touching about half a dozen villages along the way, including Carne Village.

New roads will eventually reach every village within the territory of E-Rantel, boosting travel and trade all across the fledgling realm.

Ainz, had thought about hiring local workers, to give the locals a sense of pride and accomplishment about their new roads and national unity. But Demiurge's convinced him against it.

While it was true that it was infinitely cheaper and faster to use undead workers, that wasn't the main reason. The sense of awe and otherworldly power that something as simple as the new roads would instill in the population would be useful to peacefully cow them into submission.

Behold the works of Nazarick! By the grace of the Sorcerer King, these new roads will open trade and travel to every corner of His realm!

Security and sanitation had already been overhauled in the city. Who would dare commit a crime, in a city policed by monsters of dread and legend?

The citizens had been initially terrified of the Death Warriors that now accompanied the patrols, and the Death Knights that even now stood a tireless watch on the city gates, but humans are a resilient sort, and can truly get used to anything.

"Is that so? In that case, will you start working on a new project?"

"Yes! I will begin to remodel the graveyard once I am done with the roads. I'm moving and reorganizing the tombs, digging several levels of underground catacombs to keep the surface from getting crowded, adding roman-style temples for wakes and ceremonies, then creating a small shrine for the Pearl of Death. Once that is done, I can take down the walls and begin to turn the graveyard into a park that everyone will enjoy!"

Indeed, the Pearl of Death would be enshrined in the graveyard, and begin absorbing the negative energy in the environment. Once that was set, there would be no more spontaneously rising undead in E-Rantel or its surrounding areas.

It wasn't for the benefit of the people, albeit they would certainly benefit from it. The Pearl of Death could absorb and store unlimited amounts of negative energy. With so many powerful undead in town, it would become a great source of power in the future.

"I see, Ainz dono certainly has turned out to be a much kinder ruler than we dared hope for. Since he expelled the landlords and the nobles, the villagers now own the land they work, and taxes are much more manageable. Indeed, now they are required to give up 4 out of every 10 bags of their harvest, rather than 8, so their situation is much better, and since we no longer war with the Empire every year, we don´t have to suffer the draft. But remember, if I ever believe him a tyrant, that day I will die to bring him down!"

"T-that won't happen! Ainz sama is a great man!"

This little exchange was noticed by many, and discussed by everyone in E-Rantel for weeks to come.

~O~

Indeed. Who could he ask about it, about the far away past of this world? If the world was truly going through a dark age, then odds were high that the knowledge he wanted had either been destroyed, or forgotten.

Fluder was 200 years old, and from conversation with him, Ainz learned that the empire of his youth was no better than the modern day kingdom of Re Estize. Indeed, one could said that Fluder pulled the empire out of the dark ages almost by himself, but admirable as that was, it did not help Ainz at all.

Those elf girls Hamsuke had "liberated" during the incident with the worker invasion of Nazarick were no better. The oldest amongst them was barely 170, plus the elves lived in a hunter-gatherer society, without memory of it ever having been different.

What Ainz needed was a group of people who were long-lived, well protected, and likely to have endured whatever end-of-the-world scenario it was that nearly wiped out civilization from the surface of the world.

"Oh! That's right. There's those folks, right? When you think of sturdy, long lived, well fortified and safe from surface dangers, you think of them!"

The dwarves. Ainz was besides himself with self satisfaction, but his body forced him to calm down, and the feeling was short-lived. Still, now that he had secured a name for Ainz Ooal Gown in the world maps, he had time to burn while waiting (he did not want to admit 'hoping') for a fellow player to hear about it.

~O~

Demiurge, on the other hand, was quite busy.

Emperor Jircniv Rune Farlord el Nix had sent him plenty of gifts to play with. Just as Demiurge expected, the emperor was trying to win him over, throwing banquets and doing his best to dazzle him with the shine of gold and his country's culture.

Fortunately, Jircniv had been to Nazarick himself, and witnessed the high standards of beauty on its domestic staff, so he held no illusions towards winning him with women. Otherwise, many unlucky courtesans and noble ladies of nubile age would have been added to Demiurge's two-legged sheep farm.

In the short term, Demiurge had three short-term goals. Just as Jircniv hoped to bribe him, so was he trying to find whom amongst the politicians and nobles of the empire were susceptible to his own bribes.

He was also infiltrating the empire's Institute of Technology and Thaumaturgy, in order to obtain as many useful and unusual technologies as possible for Nazarick.

Finally, he was very interested in the empire's underground society. Even as the nobles in the kingdom of Re-Estize were trying to move against Nazarick on the surface, the truth was that many of them were already working for his glorious master, Ainz Ooal Gown, due to the influence of the Eight Fingers criminal organization, already under control by Nazarick.

Right this second, however, he was doing his best at stuffing a whole chicken into his mouth.

Looking like a moron was exceedingly easy while he was transformed into a humanoid toad. His massive head and bulging eyes did half the work against the humans, whom are easily deceived by appearances. The rest was so easy he couldn't help to smirk widely from time to time.

Eating a whole chicken, 'catching' a bit of meat he fancied with his tongue, pouring a whole jar of wine into his cavernous mouth, and grinning all while accepting any and all gifts.

He was even able to keep the act up while slowly winning the humans to his side by giving them trinkets that the salamander craftsmen of Nazarick could produce by the dozen out of a few gold pieces.

Music boxes, everbright candles, or everfull flasks of fine liquor. All of these cost nearly nothing to produce with readily available materials, yet the nobles eyes would open widely and shine with the light of greed whenever he gave them one.

"And so, ambassador, I was hoping you would grace my place for a small private celebration after this one is done with."

"Count Azar il Sal, right? There'll be food there, yes?"

CRACK SNAP CRUNCH!

Demiurge spoke while grinding a whole chicken, and a lamb's leg, to meaty paste between his jaws.

"Yes, of course, that and so much more. Please, please say that you will come!"

"Got it. Once there's no more food here."

~O~

The carriage Demiurge and the count were riding on ran along the finest neighborhoods in town, but despite the grand appearance of the nearby manors, many of the gardens were overrun with weeds, the shrubbery had grown out of shape, and many sculptures laid broken.

Plenty of manors had boarded windows and looked... no, they were indeed abandoned.

When the current emperor, Jircniv Rune Farlord el Nix, rose to power, he did so on the blood of his siblings after a short but brutal struggle for the crown.

The bloodshed did not stop there, however, as the young emperor continued to purge his political enemies, killing almost a full fifth of the nobles in the process.

This was not to say that four fifths of the nobles supported him. He coldly and carefully decided that the rest were either genuinely loyal, stupid and harmless enough to be left alone, or useful enough that their 'Blood Emperor' was willing to pretend he believed their loyalty oaths.

Just as the emperor pretended to believe in them, Demiurge now pretended to trust the count.

The carriage appeared alone on the streets of Arwintar, but a high level adventurer would have noticed that its shadows were moving in very unnatural ways, ignoring all nearby light sources.

This was because several shadow demons were tagging along for the ride.

Demiurge was quite sure that the chances of this being a trap were on the low side, and almost certain that even if it was, he could easily make an example out of anyone foolish enough to attack him, but it certainly didn't hurt to be prepared.

That is why there are about three dozens gargoyles on the roof of Nazarick's Embassy. Instead of the original dozen that was there before Demiurge moved in.

~O~

The manor was lit for a party, but Demiurge immediately noticed that only youngsters and children were celebrating. It looked like quite a lively event, but it also looked completely inconsequential. There were plenty of drinks and food, dancers and musicians, but that was all there was to it.

"This way, please."

"Fumu..."

Count Azar invited Demiurge towards a rear entrance, away from the party.

Now more curious than ever about the meaning to all this, Demiurge followed his host towards the door, down a hallway, and then back outside into the rear garden.

There was another carriage waiting for them.

Within the hour, they were outside the capital, and at the southern gates of the city graveyard.

"I thank you for your patience, Demiurge-dono."

"No, no, I am quite fond of tombs."

They finally made it to a large crypt and descended its steps underground.

After a dark hallway surrounded by occupied niches, laid a thick door with metallic reinforcements. The count knocked on it thrice, then twice, then thrice again. A similar response came from the inside, and then the count knocked once more.

The door opened inwards. There was another hallway, and Demiurge followed the count into what looked... no, it was definitively a temple. A underground temple in the graveyard depths. It was lavishly decorated, with magical lights glowing on high candelabra, and rows of seats facing towards a pulpit, an altar behind it.

"Demiurge-sama, please feel welcome unto the temple of the Overlord of Death."

The archdemon's smile was a genuine one. It stretched from ear to ear, and despite showing his hundred sharp teeth, it was incredibly candid and warm.

Suddenly, the cry of a baby interrupted his joy, and a parade of people dressed in purple robes and wearing skeletal masks entered the temple from doors on either side of the altar.

Demiurge was naturally drawn forth to see what was about to happen.

They placed the child on the altar and began praying to the Overlord of Death, one of the six great gods of the Theocracy,

"This is the Cult of Death, Demiurge-sama. Some of our brethren were amongst the knights and officers deployed for the battle at Kadzu plains, and once they returned with stories of our lord's arrival, we knew a chance would come for us to show our devotion soon."

"Wonderful."

Demiurge was so overcome with happiness that he even forgot to act the fool, placing a hand over his head as he eagerly waited for what was to come.

"Please Demiurge-sama, could you do us the honor, as a chosen follower of the divine Overlord, and guide us in our sacrifice?"

"Why, it would be my pleasure! But why did you bring a brat in here? You surely do not pretend to offer such a meager thing to our sublime master?"

The cultists looked at each other, confused. Their priest looked at then, and then called for his assistants to bring in the rest of the children into the room. All of the children.

~O~

"No, no, this... what made you think this would please the Overlord of Death!? How is this even a sacrifice? I dare guess that these children were either bought or stolen, were they not? They are not even your flesh and blood. How, then, could it be called a sacrifice?"

There were now 6 children around the altar, the oldest just under 3 years old. They all looked scrawny and malnourished.

"Y-you want us to sacrifice our families?"

One of the cultist asked with trembling voice. All eyes were on Demiurge as he approached the baby on the altar, reverting back to his elegant and charismatic persona, and no longer the foolish monster he had pretended to be.

"You are not to sacrifice anyone, not even yourselves, you fool! Tell me, what would you rather dine on, a freshly hatched chick, or a fat, fully grown chicken? A piglet, or a boar? It is not a hard question."

The cultists stared at him as he continued.

"The Overlord of Death, indeed, this is Ainz-sama's proper title! But what does it mean? He is the One Who Presides Over Death. All living things will die one day. There are no exceptions. What makes you think that you can incur his favor just by killing in his name? All things will die. This includes these children. They are already his!"

They stared at each other.

"What has more value, a freshly born calf, or a fat cow?"

"The cow, of course."

"Precisely! All things will die, all things will grace our lord's table, but what is it that He desires? You there."

"Flesh... no, blood?"

"Why would the Overlord of Death want such fragile things? You there."

"Souls?"

"All souls will be His in time! You there!"

"I... am too inexperienced, Demiurge-sama."

"So close, so amazingly close!"

Demiurge exclaimed, lifting a child in one hand, and holding him high for everyone to see.

"What am I holding? You."

"A child... an infant?"

"I am holding a promise. A promise of life. What our lord desires is not the newborn chick or the fledgling calf. It is not a tiny thing such as this child! It is the experience of your lives! Our Lord desires for you to share your experiences with him! He wants your lives to be full, long, and vibrant! Isn't offering a child naught but a slap on His face?"

He lowered the baby and cradled it with infinite care, looking at it as warmly as if it was his own.

"What is the worth of this child? Nothing. Perhaps a few coins? What is the worth of a life a few days old, a few weeks old, a few months old? Almost nothing. But compare it to the accumulated experiences and sensations gathered all throughout a man's lifetime... now THAT, that is valuable to our lord! All of you, know that your lives have value! They are more and more valuable the longer they last! The more you experience! Count, count, where are you!?"

"I am here, Demiurge-sama!"

One of the cultists approached him on a rush.

"For bringing me here, you deserve reward, what would you desire? Anything, anything you desire, can be yours."

"Immortality!"

The count cried out at once. There was no doubt in his voice. He was old, and sickly. He had been a strong man, seen much, done much, but now the weight of years pressed down hard on his flesh, and the promise of the grave was not as distant as it once was.

"Imbecile! You who worship Death itself, would ask Him to forever free you of His grasp!? How can you rise so high in our lord's favor, yet fall so far in the same day!"

There was fire in Demiurge's voice. Fire and brimstone and pure rage.

"Then... then... what should I ask for? What should I hope for?!"

The count was kneeling, crushed by Demiurge's dreadful aura and killing intent.

"Poor count... what does our lord wish for you?"

"A long life full of experience?"

"Indeed! Now, it should be obvious, no? Death will come, for all things die in the end, but our lord wishes for all his flock to enjoy long and prosperous lives, full to the brim with experiences that they will bring to his table in time!"

"Then... then life! Please, youth!"

"Wonderful! Indeed, this is the gift you should have asked for from the start!"

As a level 100 NPC... no, as a floor guardian, Demiurge had access to plenty of wands, staves, scrolls and even potions he could use to achieve the desired effect. At this moment, however, he choose to do it by himself.

"You have served our lord well, count. In reuniting his flock with his servant, you have done a great service to our divine master. That which was lost, is now found thanks to you! Behold everyone! A [Wish] granted!"

Light came out from Demiurge's hands for a moment, then it faded just as quickly. Then light poured like a stream from behind's the count's mask, from inside his robes, from his every pore, and when the count straightened a back that had been twisted by the years, and with strong hands, removed his mask, everyone could see that he had been restored to his prime, a strong man in his thirties, powerful and virile.

"Do not ask for immortality, for all things must die. Ask instead for life, for nothing pleases our lord as much as seeing His flock live long and prosperous lives!"

The cultists rushed towards the count, to feel his face and the power on his renewed body.

The priest fell back unto his ass. He was a scammer, a criminal who preyed on the hopes and fears of the wealthy, aging nobles. What was he meant to do now that a true servant of the God of Death had shown up?

Demiurge was besides himself with joy, for the second time that night. It was no Eight Fingers. No, it was so much better than that.

"Serve our lord well. His greatest servants will receive the true gift of the Overlord of Death, Ainz Ooal Gown. To rule death is to rule life. What is it our lord desires?"

"Life!"

"Yes! Our lord desires for you to live long, exciting and fulfilling lives! All that live will die, and all will be part of his table, but you need not fear age if you are true to our lord! Will you do His will? Will you praise his name?"

"Yes!"

"Of course!"

"We are his flock!"

"Whomever is the most useful to our lord during the coming year, will gain youth anew in His glorious name! Surely you must have thought 'youth is wasted on the young' and 'if only I was young again' correct? Praise the Overlord of Death!"

"Praise the lord Ainz Ooal Gown!"

"All praise to the Overlord of Death! All glory to the true lord of Life!"

Demiurge could hardly believe his luck.

~O~

Author's Notes: Well, I borrowed from the web novel, simply because I am pretty sure that's how things are gonna go in the LN at some point for Demiurge. As for Ainz, it has been long teased that he will at some point visit the dwarves, and I for one cannot wait anymore.

Also, I was using ASCII characters to mark scene changes, and was horrified when, upon checking how the chapter actually looks on the site, realized they don't show up at all. Whenever you saw a ~ at the end of Lyann/Golden_Ballade's text, it was meant to be followed by a musical note, and those don't show either. You can press alt+13 or alt+14 and get the notes, and similarly, a lot of other symbols don't show up, so I'm going to be using ~O~ to mark scene changes now. Hopefully they will show.

Coming next: Grand quest at the adventurer's guild – The search for the celestial city!


	3. Chapter 3 - First Part

Please note before you read: Lyann (Golden_Ballade) is meant to speak in a very melodious and harmonious voice. This isn't me trying to make her into a Mary Sue. Its about her being in the body of a max level bard. Its meant to sound a little odd, and she will slowly grow more and more annoyed with this forced "auto tuner" effect. Have you ever tried to be taken seriously while singing your insults at someone? Over time, its going to grow into a trauma. Hell, it already gave ME a huge problem because the website does not display ASCII characters properly. Whenever she speaks (it doesn't happens through the [Message] link), I added a ~ next to her lines. This ~ was meant to be followed by a musical note (you can make them with alt + 13 or alt + 14) but the site simply does not display them. To try and solve it, I'm going to use ~ followed by 'fa' when she's calm, and "sol' or 'do' when she gets excited/angry. Pardon for the trouble, and just pretend they're musical notes. Now, lets continue!

Chapter 3

Grand quest at the adventurer's guild – The search for the celestial city!

Part I

For a town out in the backwoods, there was a surprisingly solid wall of wood and stone around it. Or was it there precisely because it was in the middle of the wilds? If those goblins were a sample of the neighbors they had to live with, it made sense.

There are no guards at the entrance itself, but there are on the watch towers at either side of it. Golden Ballade could see the militia looking at her as she walked past.

A petite female with wrapped in a traveling cloak, a funny spear on her back, and a backpack with a bedroll tied to its bottom. She was the very picture of a cliched adventurer, and not the goblins, ogres, beastmen or beasts that they were on watch against.

The streets are just dirt pressed under regular traffic, with most houses having stone foundations up to about knee height before wood replaces stone, with tall inclined roofs that suggest frequent rain at some point of the year.

There are no rain gutters, and she briefly wondered if that was because they didn't consider them important, didn't had the metal, or couldn't afford them.

It never even occurred to her that they had never even though about it.

Most people paid no any attention to her. There were about 24 streets from north to south, and 17 from east to west. It was slightly larger than any Yggdrassil towns had been, but those places only existed for players to pick or deliver quest, use basic services like smiths and inns, and weren't meant to accurately simulate the actual population needed for an actual settlement.

"Shops signs have no words. Just pictures."

She talked to Ren (Celi Malefactor) through their psychic [Message] link.

"So?"

"It means most people can't read."

"Well, thank you for the lecture, professor."

"Glad to have helped. But it really is a big help. It means I won't stand out as strange for not knowing their lang... oh."

"What is it?"

"I can understand what they are saying."

"They're using japanese!? What are the odds, I can't even..."

"No, their lips aren't synched up to it. They are probably using other language, but I understand them anyway. Still got to see if they can understand me, though. And one more thing"

"Yes?"

"They're mostly caucasic. I don't see a single asian person, or even black hair. I'm gonna change my appearance real quick, hold on."

Lyann went around behind a large building, and quickly recasted her [Alter Self] spell, going from asian to caucasic, and from brunette to redhead.

"Now you just look like yourself. Plus a insane amount of points on your charisma stat, of course."

"So? I'm confident on my looks."

"No, I just thought it was funny that you needed magic to accomplish that."

"Ah. You are right."

A petite brunette went into the alley, a slightly taller redhead came out.

~O~

She planned to enter every public building in town to look to as much of their technology and way of life as possible. It just happened to be that the first she walked into was an alchemy materials and potion's shop.

"Uhmm... ~fa"

The front room was wide, stretching from wall to wall, with a matching counter and a shelf acting as a wall behind it, just some meters away. There was a number of bags, flasks and iron bottles on it.

The clerk looked at her. He couldn't really see much of her. Her cloak covered her almost completely but for her eyes and a little bit of her bright red hair. She seemed to have a nice, curvy build that her clock couldn't hide, and was wearing high quality, brand new leather boots of a quality he had never seen before.

Her backpack straps, her spear, her boots, it all looked expensive and brand new.

He wondered if she was a rookie adventurer or a noble daughter ran away from home, but there were no nobles left in the region since the last time the beastmen swept through. So, rookie adventurer it is.

"Can I help you, miss?"

" .Mister ~fa"

She couldn't help but to sound stiff. She was very worried about whether or not the man would understand her.

"Yeah, good to you too, miss. Can I help you?"

"Ah! Yea! He underst- I mean, yes, thank you. I'd like to see your stocks, please ~fa"

"Potions, ingredients?"

"Everything. Please mention their names and prices as you bring them over one by one! ~fa"

"What?"

"Oh, and can I pay in these ~fa?"

Lyann placed two gold coins on the counter. They too, looked brand new, and of better minting than the man had ever seen on his life.

"I... guess so? Hold on, please. Need to have my boss look at these."

"Sure ~fa"

The man went into the back with one of the coins, and she took the chance to whisper to her friend.

"He understands me!"

"That's great. Think you'll be alright? I have stuff to do."

"Sure, I'm just browsing."

"Alright."

~O~

"So, what do you think?"

The clerk was talking to his boss, a man in his early fifties.

"Solid gold."

"You can tell without needing to scratch the coin?"

"Of course I can, do I look like a peasant to you!?"

"You just weighted it like always, then threw it into a flask with water and looked at it funny."

"The moment she let you take it with you, it meant she wasn't afraid of you scratching it. It weight's one thing, but now that I know its size, I can compare it to its weight to tell you that yes, it's pure gold."

"How do you do that with water?"

"Too long to explain right now. Now go out there and be polite to our very wealthy foreign-looking customer."

"Yes boss."

As soon as his employee was gone, Alberto, the town's alchemist, left from the back door.

~O~

"These are moonglade leaves. A kilo is 5 silver coins."

"Yes, moonglade leaf, 1k for 5sp. Got it ~fa"

Now that the young woman had taken her cloak off, Fredrick was completely smitten with her. She was easily the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, as cliche as that sounds.

Her clothes fit her perfectly, and had been obviously tailored for her, protecting without diminishing the impact of her figure. Her face was round and cute, with the brightest blue eyes he had ever seen, and a red hair so bright it almost looked as if the sunset was painted on it.

A thin line of it falls over her face and almost pokes at her lips, but not quite, and adding her looks to her voice, Fredrick had a problem trying not to stare too much.

She had been asking for every single item in the shelves for a while now, and writing their names and prices down on a small hand held book of surprisingly white parchment, for the better part of the morning now, He did not mind at all.

If his boss had come back and told him to go home early today, he would have punched him for trying to send him off.

"They're used as a mild antidote."

"Thank you ~fa!"

He preemptively answered her next question. "What are they for?". He hadn't lost all of his wits, yet. But when she smiled at him just now, he was doomed.

She double checked the shelves behind Fredrick to make sure she wasn't missing anything, and closed her small book, then placed it back into her backpack.

"I'd feel bad if I didn't buy anything. Do you have healing potions ~fa?"

"Yes, of course, just, not on the shelf. Please wait!"

"Thank you ~fa"

He came back quickly, with a small crate of iron flasks.

"These are the high quality ones. None of that cheaper stuff the boss tells me to push into strangers."

"Won't you get into trouble because of it ~fa?"

"It'll be alright."

"Can I hold one ~fa?"

"Of course, please go ahead!"

Golden Ballade picked one of the metallic flasks in her right hand, and used [Analyze Dweomer] on it.

[Potion of Cure Light Wounds]

"These are the best you have ~fa?"

"Yes! They're the good stuff!"

She gave him a somewhat weird smile. For her, these potions were literally of the lowest imaginable tier. She wasn't bothered by the fact that they were blue, but they were indeed the equivalent of a second level healing spell. Or first level if you didn't count "level zero" as a level.

Actually, there was a level zero healing spell, [Cure Minor Wounds] which would literally heal 1hp upon use.

"These are equivalent to a spell of cure light wounds, right ~fa?"

"Yes, as strong as a second tier spell!"

She nodded, taking a mental note of the fact that they seemed to count spell tiers starting at level zero. That meant that they had ten levels of magic, rather than nine.

"How much for these ~fa?"

"50 cold coins.. but I can give you a discount!"

"No, that's roughly the price I am used to. Let me see... 20 flasks, that should be 1000gp ~fa"

"Hah! I didn't meant to say you should buy the crate, obviously! You can just buy the o-n-e...?"

Fredrick was stunned when he noticed the small towers of platinum coins. As a potions merchant, he had seen platinum coins before. When you work with adventurers on a daily basis, you see a few every month, but this was several tall stacks of them.

Exactly a hundred platinum coins, were neatly piled up on the counter right now.

The young woman had begun taking the flasks one by one, and placing them into a pouch on her belt. They sort of just... disappeared there.

[Pouch of Potion Holding]

It was a handy item which would automatically ready potions for you to use as you needed, and could store up to 50 of them. It was considered one of those 'absolute must have' in Yggdrassil, like a [Handy Haversack].

By the way, a [Handy Haversack], like the one on Golden Ballade's possession, appears to be a well made, well used, and quite ordinary backpack. It is constructed of finely tanned leather, and the straps have brass hardware and buckles. It has two side pouches, each of which appears large enough to hold about a quart of material, but in fact, each is like a bag of holding and can actually hold material of as much as 2 cubic feet in volume, or 20 pounds in weight.

The large central portion of the pack can contain up to 8 cubic feet or 80 pounds of material. Even when so filled, however, it always weighs 5 pounds, no more, no less. Whenever you reach into it for an item, the item will always be the first thing you grab. It is an absolute must for Yggdrassil players.

~O~

"Hey, I'm back, anything interesting happen?"

Ren spoke to her through their [message] link again.

"I bought 20 potions of light healing."

"Cheapskate."

"No, it was the best they had."

"Seriously? I understand it is a small town, but even so..."

"Yes. Oh, and they count zero level spells as a magical tier, so they have 10 tiers."

"Thank you again professor, I know how to count, mind you. Still, is not that weird, right?"

"Right, plenty of societies did that back on earth. I just thought it was worth mentioning."

"So where are you going now?"

"I dunno. Whatever building has a sign outside next, I guess. I was planning to check every store."

"Ugh. I'm gonna go back to work, then."

"Alright, I'll call you if anything exciting happens."

"Take care and try to not stand out, alright?"

"Its why I'm here, and not you, remember?"

Lyann could feel the [Message] link end.

~O~

A little over a week ago

"We are in a valley surrounded by mountains. It does not resemble anywhere on our maps. It does not have any signs of civilization. In fact, there's no actual path in or out of the valley. We are cut off from the world."

"Doctor's Orders-sama, what does it mean?"

"We asked you to use our real names, remember?"

"Yes! But, it feels disrespectful to address the Exalted Ones as equals..."

Mako was gently chiding general Li across the meeting table. They had abandoned the senate, and simply re purposed one of the currently absent guild members room.

They finally had their round table, albeit it was a small one.

"Please do so. If it makes you feel better, I could order you to do so?"

The kind angel leaned her head slightly towards the side. She crossed her right arm under her breasts, and held her left elbow with its hand, then rested her left hand on her head as she looked at the leonal warrior.

"That won't be necessary, Mako-sama."

"You don't need the honorific either."

"I'm afraid that would be impossible, Mako-sama."

"...alright. It means that we do not know anything about where we are. We are fairly sure it is not one of the Yggdrassil worlds by now, so it could be virtually anywhere. It could even be any _when_."

Once Mako finished speaking, general Subutai stood up in turn.

"A flock of low level gryphons have their nest in the south corner of the valley. Other than them, there are no other monsters in the region. Game is plentiful, as are water sources. The snow in the tallest peaks around us suggests that we will have snowfalls at some point of the year."

"I wonder if we should change the weather in the valley... then again, winter events are fun, like Christmas ~fa!"

Ren and Mako agreed with their friend. It would be nice to see some snow.

Once Subutai sat down, it was Lyann's turn to stand up.

"Good news. Magic is working. MP is being replenished as usual ~sol"

Everyone sighed with relief at those news. It meant that they could use their spells without fear of running out of mana.

"Except... ~fa"

"Yes?" x5

"Level caps appear to have been removed. [Magic Missile] is meant to create a projectile every 2 levels after 1st level, and is hard capped at 5 missiles. It is the benchmark noob spell. But when I used it for the test, it created a huge swarm of them ~sol!"

"What about other spells?"

Celi Malefactor, Ren, was already wondering about [Fabricate], minor and greater creation spells, as well as many, many other spells that were meant to become more powerful based on their caster's level, but were hardcapped in some way.

"Fireball, Dragon Lightning, Cone of Cold, they all work without a hard cap anymore. Summoning spells too, albeit the summons do vanish after their enhanced time runs out ~fa."

"Thank you for risking your magic to learn that."

"Thank you, Lyann!"

"Thank you, Lyann-sama!" x3

"Now, we should focus into exploration. As soon as the scouts find civilization, I should go and- ~fa!?"

She couldn't finish her sentence, because everyone stood up together to firmly deny her words.

"Are you crazy!?"

"No!"

"Absolutely not!"

"How can we ask Lyann-sama to risk herself!?"

"I am strongly against it!"

Both her friends and all three NPCs were vehemently opposed to it.

"Well, its not as if we know what sort of people is out there. And none of you can change shapes, can you? Orcs, humans, elves, or anything else, I can blind right in! ~sol"

Everyone was quiet.

"Besides, I'm max level, I will be fine. You said those gryphons were the only thing out there, and they're low level, right? If that's the worst danger out there, it will be a piece of cake! ~fa"

"That's the thing. We don't know if they're the worst thing out there. You are level 100, so what? For all we know, the average level on this world could be ten thousand or one million!"

"I'm still the only one that can go. ~fa"

"Alright."

Ren sighed and gave her okay.

"What, why!?"

Mako stood up right away, her wings spreading behind her.

"She's right, that's the only why. Please calm down. As soon as the scouts find civilization, I will scry on them and adjust her equipment so it looks normal for their society. That's all we can do for now."

~O~

Now that her cloak was safely stored away in her backpack, people were staring at her, mouths agape.

She quickly entered the next door with a sign that she could find, and closed the door behind her. The sign had a bed and a mug, and she correctly guessed it would be a tavern and inn.

The place was rather large, with about 3 dozen tables, the vast majority of them, currently empty. As soon as she closed the door and turned around, the conversation of the few patrons on the common floor began dying out almost as if a wave of silence was physically spreading forth from the door.

"The hell's going oo-oh!"

The musician on the stage was the last to notice, shortly after the dancing girl stood still.

Lyann made her way towards the counter, and spoke to the middle aged man there in a low tone.

"Could I have a room, please? ~fa"

"Yes, of course... it's... money... per night. It includes breakfast... you need to empty by noon or it counts as another day and... please feel free to stay. Please marry me?"

"What!? ~sol"

"Please marry me."

"Sir, I don't even know you! ~sol"

"I'm Lucca. Now marry me?"

"Mister Lucca, please don't joke like that! I'll be taking a bath and come down for dinner, so please prepare your best! ~sol"

"Uhm, mah best, yes. Will do."

"Thank you. ~fa"

~O~

By the time she went back downstairs, the tavern was packed full. There were people at the bar, and even peeking in from outside the doors and windows.

"Oh ~Fa"

She had arranged her hair into a single long ponytail, which was now floating in the air behind her. It somehow looked as if she was underwater whenever she moved.

"Mister Lucca, you didn't told me that the dining room would be full. Can I take my meal to my room? ~fa"

Since everyone grew quiet when she showed up, she was beginning to worry about them having issue with strangers, but as soon as she said that, three men that had been sitting at a table, moved to the table right next to them, and squeezed in with the people already there.

Well, since they were going to such lengths to accommodate her...

"Oh. Thank you ~fa"

She smiled a little, and the room broke into cries of "oooh!" and "aaah!". She was soon swarmed with people asking her for marriage, or at least trying to get her to dine with them. She was a rather attractive young woman back on Earth, so she wasn't a stranger to having admirers, but this was a bit much.

"I can't marry! I just started my adventure! ~sol"

"Oh, you are an adventurer?"

"Where are you from?"

"What level are you?"

"What's your name?"

"Yes, I have arrived from a very distant land. It is called Tengoku Junzi. Level one hundred. Lyann Du Lumiere, but my adventurer name is Golden Ballade. ~sol"

"Ah, so Lyann-chan is a foreigner. Is everyone in Tengoku Junzi like you?"

"yes? I don't think I'm that special? ~fa"

She was beginning to calm down, now.

"You said level one hundred? You don't use the plate system in Tengoku Junzi?"

"Tengoku Junzi, and no, what plates are you talking about? ~fa"

"Golden Ballade, are you a bard, then?"

"Yes! You know bards? ~fa"

"Ah... I know of them. That's a fairly rare job, no? I wonder if Lyann-chan is strong. What plate level would she be?"

"If she made it here from a far away land, she should be at least gold?"

"That sounds very convenient for an adventurer called Golden Ballade."

"Sounds about right! Haha!"

The men seemed to think it was quite funny, but Lyann was now wondering about the plates system.

"Uhmm... how do I get a plate?"

"You will need to head to a city and apply on their Adventurer's Guild, but with those blasted beastman attacking the country, all cities have fallen, or been emptied and their citizens are now hiding in the capital."

The innkeeper took her meal to the table she was sitting at. To be honest, everyone was sitting facing in her direction. Whenever she spoke, complete silence reigned amongst the other patrons.

They were telling her about adventurer levels, or ranks. About the region specialties, and pretty much anything else she wanted to know. They were more than happy to earn a smile.

~O~

Meanwhile, Ren was hard at work.

As Celi Malefactor, she was a specialized crafter. Back on Earth, she was a math teacher, and after running some numbers, she had extremely high expectations for this little experiment.

[Fabricate] is a 5th level spell. In this world, it would apparently be ranked as a 6th level spell, though that bit wasn't important.

Normally, its range was considered "close", which meant 25ft + (5ft * ½ her level.) with a hard cap of about 100ft. But if Lyann was right, that limiter had been removed.

"A simple use of the formula for a sphere gives me 52,359,877ft^3 of range right now... I can aim quite deep under the surface."

"Yes, Ren-sama."

Subutai was acting as her escort. Lyann, the history nerd, designed him as a genius who could do complex operations with ease, in order to run the logistics needed to operate Tengoku Junzi with maximum efficiency at all times. She picked the name of the great mongol general who served Gengis Khan, Subutai, whom accumulated so many victories and successes that telling them all in detail would fill too many books, to the point where, in "Secret History of the Mongols", a simple paragraph was given to many of his exploits.

"Gengis sent Subutai his war dog, to the north west, where he conquered 11 countries in 2 years."

Only that.

A genius who back when the most advanced war machine was a bowman on horseback, was able to easily orchestrate armies hundreds of miles apart, develop the use of siege engines for normal battlefields, and conquered more land that any other general in the history of mankind.

That was whom Subutai, the [Attack General] of Tengoku Junzi, was based on.

"If we stand at ground level, restricted to a hemisphere below the world's surface, we change that number to 26,179,938.78 ft^3. This is about 1,471,022.695 m^3 or 1,471,022,695,100 cm^3 Ren-sama."

"Fumu... 1,471 kilometers is nothing in terms of distance to the planet's core. I can use [Fabricate] 122 times if I am willing to spend my full MP reserves to do so, but I think a hundred times should be good enough. Please write down the results."

"There is no need, I am more than capable of memorizing the results down to the last gramme of the materials extracted by Ren-sama's magnificent experiment."

"I wish to be able to distribute copies to Lyann, Mako, General Li and Administrator Burlaug, however."

"Of course, Ren-sama. Please forgive me."

Subutai took the small notebook Ren was offering him, and prepared to write down the results...

~O~

By using [Fabricate] to reach deep down under the earth, Ren had scooped up a perfectly square chunk of terrain 100 ft^3 in size, or 3,048 cm^3 if one was of such persuasion.

The spell had cleanly scooped out that chunk of world, and produced perfectly shaped metal bars with it, each sample producing different results based on the available material.

[Fabricate] was completely useless against living matter, or against anything with a will, no matter how primitive. One was unable to use it even against a target's equipment, because any items held by a person would benefit from their user's willpower when it was time to resist a effect targeted at them.

However, dirt was a completely different business.

The reason Ren was taking cubic samples roughly 30 meters per side (3,048 centimeters per side, if you wanted to be annoyingly accurate) every 14km of depth, was so she could compare the mineral content of the crust at varying depths, to later focus her efforts in the depths of whatever sample turned out to be the most interesting.

How would the results be judged? For this, we need to take another look at [Fabricate].

[Fabricate] is a spell that turns raw materials into finished products.

For example, if you wanted a wooden chair, you would need enough wood to match the precise, final, total mass of the chair. You could have extra material, and the spell would only take what it needed.

If you wanted to craft a sword, the spell would need a number of ore matching or exceeding the mass of the sword.

It was not a hard-to-understand spell. You want a bed? You need enough wood to make the bed. The spell simply replaces the crafting process. But if you were good with numbers, it loaned itself to plenty of abuse.

And Ren was good with numbers.

In this case, she had several containers ready and waiting to be filled with the resulting metal bars she was making with [Fabricate].

She used [Fabricate] to make those the day prior, in case you wanted to know. She couldn't make a fully functioning truck, but she could make every single part of it and let Mako have fun assembling it.

It was that simple. She was going to take roughly 30 square meters of the planet crust and turn it into perfect bars of whatever elements they happened to contain.

If the sample was 30% iron, then 30% of the bars would be iron bars. The remaining 70% would be pure bars made from whatever else there was inside that roughly 30 meters-per-side cube that she was processing with [Fabricate].

~O~

"Sister, what are these numbers for?"

Mako, General Li, and Administrator Burlaug were holding a paper copy with the results of Ren's experiment.

"If you look at the very simple results for sample 1, please?"

60.6% SiO2 yielded 1,106,625.09 tons

15.9% Al2O3 yielded 290,050.236 tons

6.4% CaO yielded 116,389.82 tons

4,7% MgO yielded 84,983.256 tons

3,1% Na2O yielded 56,347.12 tons

6.7% Fe as FeO yielded 121,932.352 tons

1.8% K2O yielded 32,330.878 tons

0.7% TiO2 yielded 12,008.54 tons

0.1% P2O5 yielded 923.476 tons

Mako looked at page 1, liften the 101 pages thick report, looked at its thickness, and put it down while forcing a smile to her face.

"Yes, its very ...nice? You got literal tons of stuff, but..."

Her sister stopped her with a raised hand as she smiled and then continued.

"Please turn the page so you can look at sample 2."

The NPCs did so with serious expressions.

Mako took the considerably thick report and rolled it into a very solid looking club. She walked around to behind her sister, and when she was still talking about the yield percentages of sample 2, hit her on the back of the head with it.

"Ouch! You meanie!"

"Be thankful Lyann isn't here. What do these numbers mean? Tons? Thousands of them, at it!"

"Earlier, I took 100 samples of the earth crust every 14 kilom... don't hit me!"

"Be quicker."

"We have a lot of materials now! we canbuildTokyoifwefeellikeit! Well, [Fabricate] Tokyo, anyway."

She rushed towards the end because Mako was holding the report up high again.

"Lyann is right, you are the nerdiest of us all."

Mako lowered her improvised club and hugged her twin from behind, giving her a smooch on the cheek.

"Just don't go overboard, alright?"

"I promise. Oh! You know, some samples... no, really! Its interesting! Some samples had unknown materials on them. Well, unknown for earth anyway. I think you would call them mithril, orichalcum and other fantasy stuff like that..."

"I see, I see, so, in total, how many mithril tons?"

She looked at Subutai while asking.

"754,441.45 tons, Mako-sama."

"Uhmm... I can't really get an idea of it. How much space does that use?"

"Of course Mako-sama, please excuse me. Each ingot is roughly 1/5th the weight of a similar sized iron bar, so they use about a kilometer per side."

"That is a lot of mithril."

"We also have eighty times as much gold."

~O~

"Please tell me more about the beastmen invasion. No, please tell me about the beastmen themselves. ~fa"

Lyann had finished her dinner, and was now sitting against a wall while the villagers sat on the floor before her, enjoying to look at her as she spoke.

"They are taller than men by about two heads, with reversed hands, and tiger heads."

"Reversed hands... we call those rahshasa ...in my land. They're a type of demon, not just a beastman. ~fa"

"That sounds about right. They are terribly strong, and hunt and devour humans for sport. They have their own realm next to us, and had always attacked us in small scale raids to 'harvest' us as they say."

"But this time its different? ~fa"

"We have already lost three cities to them."

"Fuuu... that sounds terrible! So the war is going poorly? ~sol"

"Everyone is scared, it looks as if this time, they want to turn us all into cattle!"

"You have adventurers, right? Aren't they heroes? Haven't they gone to fight? ~fa"

"They have, and died or worse."

"What about asking for help from other countries."

"I'm sorry, miss, but we don't know much about that."

"I see. ~fa"

Lyann crossed her legs and slightly leant forth in the classical The Thinker posture. The patrons at the tavern were more than happy to watch the beauty as she sat there, looking interesting and thoughtful.

"I think... I won't sign up as an adventurer, but... I'm interested in seeing the rakshasa. ~fa"

"Ah, you really shouldn't, miss. Those demons are many times stronger than a man!"

"How many times stronger than, say... one of the militia in town? ~fa"

"About 5 or 7 times?"

The villagers looked at each other with bitter faces.

Well, unlike a pure caster or warrior types, a bard was specialized in support and information gathering.

Coming into town, she could tell that the militia were only level 3 or 5 at most. So, she calculated that the rakshasa would be about level 15 to 35... which was roughly the same levels they had back in Yggdrassil.

If NPCs and players had made the jump, it made sense that monsters would have, as well.

Did this mean it was their fault, somehow?

"I want to fight them... ah! But I promised I wouldn't go looking for fights! That's the only way they would let me travel...! ~fa"

She looked quite adorable as she held her head with both hands, looking troubled. The villagers immediately began filling in the blanks by themselves.

Perhaps a noble daughter, too gifted for her own good, trained to defend herself as any child of nobility would, and turned out too good for her own good? She struggled to get her doting parents permission, but finally managed to do so... something like that.

"But, don't go looking for fights, alright?"

"Yes, okaa-sama, oyaji-sama! ~fa"

A regal-looking couple was there in their mind's eye! A beautiful and elegant mother, the queen! A regal but doting father, the king! and their beautiful, spoiled daughter! Even the villagers could easily imagine it! A white castle! A beautiful country! Tengoku Junzi!

"Miss, you really shouldn't go looking for them demons..."

"Fuu... I wanna, I wanna! ~fa"

"Such a pretty thing, they'd gobble you right up!"

After one of the patrons said so, all of them could imagine eating her out, in various ways.

"Fuu... I'm actually pretty strong, you know? I'm level 100 you know? ~sol"

She had a tear hanging from every eye! And a pouty face! Too adorable!

"Erh... I don't know how strong that is, but I don't think you should go looking for trouble and break your promise."

An appeal to the princess from their mind's eye! A promise to mama and papa!

"Fuu... I can use healing magic, and support spells. My music can make you strong in battle, so I could just stand in the back... ~fa"

"Wait, you know healing magic?"

One of the patrons straightened up. He was a muscular man in his early 30's, wearing a sleeveless studded leather chest armor piece, with two short swords strapped to his back. He had a small platinum plate hanging from a necklace around his neck.

"Yes? And you are...? ~fa"

"I am Albion, from the platinum adventurer team, Wild Riders. We were on a quest nearby, and our healer was badly injured. Since he's unconscious, he can't heal himself. We gave him healing potions and treated his wounds with herbs, but he still hasn't woken up. If you can heal him, we'll take you in!"

"Are you looking for rakshashas!? ~sol"

"No, but after we are done with our job, we need to go back to the capital. There's a very high chance we may run into one. If you want to see one so badly, wouldn't it be better to be with a party of 5 when it happens?"

"Ah... I guess so. ~fa"

The redhead nodded softly.

"In that case, please come with me, our party's cleric is resting upstairs."

"Alright. ~fa"

~O~

"Tch!"

The alchemist cursed softly under his breath. He had gone to the leader of the local brigands group to try and ambush the young woman, but if she was going to tag along with an platinum party of adventurers, it was much too risky.

"Don't worry old man. We just need to get more people. Pretty girl like that would really well once we are done with her."

And so, these men of violence rejoiced in their planning, picturing all the fun they would have once they got their hands on the foreigner girl.

~O~

"Oy, Albion, who's the pretty lady?"

A dwarf opened the door when Albion knocked. He was dressed in full plate armor, and armed. It wasn't that he was expecting trouble, but he was expecting trouble. You could call it an occupational disease for adventurers and workers.

"Please don't call me lady, -sama, or anything of that. I get more than enough of that at home. My name is Lyann, also known as Golden Ballade. It is a pleasure to meet you, sir. ~fa"

Lyann bowed slightly, and the dwarf smiled, then stepped aside to let her an Albion pass.

His equipment was of masterwork quality, Lyann noticed, but not magical, just incredibly well done.

'As expected of a dwarf.'

Such were her thoughts about it.

"Grumnir. Nice to meet cha, lady Lyann."

The dwarf greeted her with a smirk. His beard and hair were light brown, with black iron rings in them. He smelled of plants and earth, and Lyann decided that she liked him a lot. The first 'real' dwarf she had ever met.

"You are going to keep going with the 'lady' thing now, aren't you sir Grumnir? ~fa"

"Ye should nae introduce yerself, and show people what ticks ye off in the same line, m' lady."

"I'll remember it. I thought there would be more people with you? ~fa"

"The others have gone to have their gear repaired, visit the herbalist, or are just resting in their own room."

Albion spoke calmly, and Lyann nodded. She could see another dwarf, sleeping on the lower bunk bed near the window.

"Oh, you must be a wealthy group if you can all afford several rooms, then?"

"Not really, but we manage. Its necessary because we have three men and two ladies. Three and three now, perhaps."

"I see. So your wounded friend? What is his name?"

"Tazar. He's our resident healer, which means we all grind to a halt if he's down like this."

"Can I approach him? ~fa"

"Yes of course."

"Uhm ~fa"

Lyann took a look at the dwarf. He had thick but lustrous black hair and beard with silver ornaments, a rather lean build, though that may be normal for a caster. But, a lean dwarf was still more muscular than most human men.

His bandages looked freshly changed, and had only small spots of blood on them, so it looked as if his life was in no danger. The smell of herbs rose from him strongly, the same scent as Grumnir's, so she guessed that the armored dwarf had treated his compatriot recently.

Lyann Du Lumiere had zero knowledge of medicine. She didn't even know how to do CPR or measure someone's pulse, but Golden Ballade, as a max level bard with excessively high intelligence, had near godly levels on every possible skill, and that included Healing and Profession (Doctor).

A bard is nothing if not a skill monkey, after all.

"Activate skill: [Heal] ~fa"

She became a spectator within her own body. Golden Ballade was in charge right now. She placed her [Handy Haversack] on the floor near the bed, and left it open before she unwrapped Tazar's bandages with expert touch, pulled some alcohol from the backpack, some clean clothes, and proceeded to clean the dwarf's wounds again.

She pulled a couple of tweezers and used them to dig into the wounded dwarf's shoulder, fishing out a claw bit that was incrusted there.

Lyann was wobbly by the smell of blood, but Golden Ballade was unaffected.

After adding a scab-inducing unguent to Tazar's wounds, she pulled out surgical thread and meddles. Lyann was straight out dizzy now, but Golden Ballade smoothly sew the wounds shut with firm and expert hand, then wrapped fresh bandages on them and returned Lyann's medical supplies into her backpack.

"Agh! I be calling you mistress Lyann from now on, m'lady! Ye patched that fool's wounds with more love than his mother would have, ye did!"

"You said you knew healing spells."

"Skill Over. ~fa"

Lyann fell flat on her butt by the bed. She supported herself on her hands as she looked back at Albion.

"He didn't need them. His life is out of danger, this is not a battlefield, so there's no need to have him up and running right away. My dragon's aura will patch him up in a couple of minutes, anyway. I just didn't want to leave a bit of claw inside him. ~fa"

"Your what aura?"

"My.. uhm.. you have dragon shamans in this w- region, right? Our mere presence incites healing and strength. It won't heal him completely, but it will heal him half way there, you see? If we are allies, that is. Are we allies, now? ~fa"

"I say we are, m'lady! Nobody is that talented, and still a greenhorn, ye clearly know yer way around."

Albion seemed to consider it for a second. He was as smitten with the girl as anyone else, back in the common hall, but this was business now.

"Were you lying when you said you knew healing spells?"

"No. I guess I should patch him up right now, then? ~fa"

"Please do."

"Alright."

She took a deep breath, and got up, then stretched a hand over the still unconscious dwarf's chest.

"[Cure Serious Wounds]"

Her spell flowed like silver-glowing petals down the full length of her arm and into the dwarf. His wounds disappeared, and he was unconscious no more, merely sleeping.

"Well, that was a waste of a spell. ~fa"

"Wait, isn't that a third-tier healing spell? You know third-tier spells?"

"Third tier... ah, right. Your magical culture is different from mine. You count zero tier spells as tier one, right?"

"Uhm, that's past the point, lady. If ye know third tier spells, ye're beyond platinum, right?"

"I'm sorry, sir Grumnir, we don't use the plate system back home. We go by levels. I am level 100, you see? Besides, I'm not a front line sort, I'm really a support type. ~fa"

"Well, it'll be a lot safer to go 'round with ye supporting our backs, I say! So, what do ye think, Albion?"

"I guess... we are finally a 6 people party."

"Welcome t' the Wild Riders, m'lady Lyann!"

"Please cut the lady thing, sir Grumnir. ~fa"

"No deal, yer reaction's too funny!"

~O~

About an hour or so later, the whole group was sitting around in the room as they introduced each other.

They had already convinced Lyann to keep her hood while inside towns from now on, but it was too late for the town of Idalgo. They couldn't use the common room in peace anymore, not if she was with them, which is why introductions had to be conducted in the gentleman's room.

"You know, I do know [Alter Self] so I can look anyway I want to look. I could be another dwarven man, if you thought that would help. ~fa"

"Nice. Would it change your voice?"

"No ~fa"

"Then its pointless. Just copy some woman off the street the next time we are in a new town and you feel like taking off yer cloak, alright?"

Tazar has a lot less of an accent that Grumnir did, though Lyann couldn't help but smile when she heard how cliche the dwarves sounded.

"As for formal introductions, please allow me. You are already familiar with Tazar and Grumnir. The first is our cleric, and the latter is our meat shield. I am more an all around swordsman."

Lyann nodded as Albion introduced the male members of the party again.

"These are Kallisto, our mage."

A dark skinned elf woman greeted her by raising a hand. She was wearing well tailored, if well-worn clothes. She wasn't wearing any armor, though that didn't seem strange to Lyann since a lot of casters can't use magic while wearing armor. Druids, clerics, bard and a few others were the exception to this, rather than the norm.

Kallisto had a slightly elongated face, but looked rather pretty. Her eyes were also slightly longer, and gave her a very exotic appearance that wasn't exactly asian. She had short white hair and a black iron collar on her neck. It looked more like a slave's collar than a proper accessory, and Lyann had a rough time deciding if she should ask about it or not.

"And finally Cathya, our rogue."

'The party rogue, for a good and properly balanced monster meal, you got to have a caster, a rogue, a fighter and a healer.'

Lyann smirked a little. Some things were multi universal, it seemed.

The rogue, unlike the rest of the party except Grumnir, was wearing her complete armor. In her case, it was a black studded leather suit that hugged her tightly, well made, but not magical. It had nothing that could get caught on anything as she moved, and her boots were low and solid looking. She had short, fluffy looking chestnut brown hair.

"If you can look any way you want, is that how you really look?"

Cathya looked at her with narrowed eyes.

"Not really, but at the same time yes. To begin with, I could turn into anything and tell you that's my actual form and you would just have to believe me. ~fa"

"So how do you actually look?"

"Fuu... like I said, like this, yet not like this... its really complicated. Now, why don't you tell me about the job you were doing when Tazar got hurt? ~fa"

"We were hunting Giant Harvest Bugs."

Kallisto sat on top of a drawer, and spoke calmly.

"Giant Harvest Bugs... could you describe them for me? I already learned that the tiger beastmen that are attacking the country are called Rakshasa where I come from, so I probably know them by other name. ~fa"

"Well, they're green, longer than a horse, can spit acid, and their tunneling makes land extremely fertile, so farmers like to use it to grow their crops. They're mostly harmless, except during harvest seaso-"

Albion had begun explaining, but Lyann nodded and finished for him.

"Because it's their mating season, right? And you can use their shells to make good, lightweight armor. I think I know what they are. We call them Ankheg. You can, if you pay close attention, see their antenna sprout from the ground while they are lurking about, right? ~fa"

"Right! That's the critter! I knew ye were no greenhorn."

Grumnir said while nodding approvingly.

"Well, it's nice to know that some things are the same anywhere I go. A rose by any other name, would smell just as sweet. Well, I think it's time I go to work, then ~fa"

"Uhm? No, no, we are done for today. You don't want to fight those things in the dark."

"I don't want to fight those things at all! I'm a support type, remember? Just trust me, and stretch a hand towards me! ~fa"

Lyann gently touched the tip of each party member's fingers with her own. A golden thread came forth each time, and soon she was holding 5 in total, then she added one of her own.

"What's that?"

Kallisto seemed quite interested.

"Uhmm.. it's a rather exotic job even back home, but this is the art of a Incantatrix. Just don't mind me for a little while as I work. Read a book, look out the window, go to sleep if you want. ~fa"

"Nu uh, I wanna see what you are doing. Besides, that golden thread comes from me, right? I can't touch it, though."

Kallisto jumped down from the drawer and pulled a chair to sit and look at what Lyann was doing.

"Fine, but don't blame me if you get bored. Support jobs aren't exactly exciting, which is why they are not very popular."

"Hah! Tell me about it!"

Tazar said out loud as he, too, pulled a chair nearby.

"No, really, tell me about what yer doing, m'lady."

"Fiiine. Each of these threads is us. It represents our fate. This is called fateweaving. I'm weaving our fates together. It lasts for a single day, but- ~fa"

"Yer doing what!?"

Now everyone was sitting or standing around her.

"You know support spells, right? Cat's Grace, bull's Strength? ~fa"

"I don't know them by those names, but a can guess you mean [Lesser Agility Boost] and [Lesser Strength Boost]. I'm pretty sure."

"Probably? We use different names for a lot of stuff, after all. Anyway, its a pain to cast it on every single party member, right? Your MP won't last. When I'm done weaving a little token charm, I can cast any spell on it, and it will affect all of us at once. Healing, support, enhancements... its really convenient. ~fa"

"Oy oy, that sounds mighty useful."

Tazar and Kallisto were quite interested now, but the rest of the party, being non-casters, and seeing that it wasn't dangerous, began doing their own things now.

"Yes, but it takes 10 minutes to create the charm, so it can't be done in combat. I used to do it every morning, but I've seen too many attacks at dawn and charges with the sunset in the background, so after soup time seems best now. ~fa"

"Ah, that does happen a lot in our business."

It was mildly interesting to see Lyann use her weaving needles to work the golden threads, but that was it, really.

"Once you are done, can we cast spells into it as well?"

Kallisto asked after a while.

"I'm afraid not, but I can work with you to make your spells stronger, though. ~fa"

"How much stronger?"

Lyann looked at the dark skinned elf. She was about level 20, so she should be able to use level 2 spells... level 3 in this world.

"Uhmm... let me finish this and I will demonstrate the full power of a support job! ~fa"

Eventually, she was done. It was a small, cuddly round pillow of golden threads.

"Done! Now let's see... ah, some spells require that you touch me when I cast them, which is why I have such inconveniently long hair. Please gather around wearing your full gear! ~fa"

She undid her long thick braid, and split it into many small ones, then had everyone hold to one.

"Here we go! [Greater Magic Weapon]! ~fa"

The charm token glowed red for a moment, then the magic spread through Lyann's hair to her new party members, all at once.

"Oy!, what does this do?"

"Check out your weapon. ~fa"

"Why is it glowing? It feels lighter, too."

"I made it so it will be much sharper and stronger. You should notice a huge difference in battle. I think they're about as good as a [Legendary] tier weapon right now? Since they don't have any special ability like throwing fireballs or anything like that. Ren could reforge them that way, but this is all I can do. Sorry. Now, let's continue ~fa"

[Magic Vestment]

Their armors began glistening as if they had been just oiled and polished. They were lighter, and stronger.

[Resistance against acid]

A green aura covered them briefly

[Protection vs evil]

A white aura covered them briefly

[Haste]

Their feet and arms would become twice as fast

[Bull's Strength] (Greater Strength Boost)

[Cat's Grace] (G Agility Boost)

[Bear's Endurance] (G Stamina Boost)

[Fox's Cunning] (G Intelligence Boost)

[Owl's Wisdom] (G Wisdom Boost)

[Eagle's Charisma] (G Charisma Boost)

[Minor Vitality]

Their wounds would close by themselves, as if they had the enormous healing powers of trolls.

[Stoneskin]

Their bodies were like rock as far as the enemy was concerned. Honestly, Lyann had began realizing that the levels of the average adventurer was much lower than in Yggdrassil, but considering that this was real life now, and the job implied really risking one's life, it didn't surprise her.

She had many times more support spells that she could have used, but restrained herself to those that would be called of up to 3rd level on this world.

"It is quite amazing, Lyann! I had never heard about a couple of these spells. What does stoneskin do?"

"To explain it simply, let me think... it should nullify three of the ankheg's hits! ~fa"

"That's really something. How long does it last? I know [Greater Strength Boost] lasts for several hours, but even so, you should have waited until we set out to fight."

"About the same. Don't worry, part of a Incantatrix job is, I can make support spells last a full day. So once I use that skill, any spells you have on you will last until this time tomorrow. ~fa"

"What!? That's too amazing! That's ridiculous!"

"I'm exclusively a support job. It's everything I do. Don't ask me to fight, alright? I suck at it. ~fa"

"I guess its a trade off."

Kallisto and Tazar were noticeable impressed, albeit everyone was looking at Lyann with a mix of awe and pity. If she was as terrible a fighter as she was a great support, she probably was a REALLY bad fighter.

"Anyway, before I do that, you should cast any support effects you'd like to last a full day. ~fa"

"Right, in that case, hold on, m'lady!"

[Righteous Might]

[Bless]

[Guidance]

[Enlarge Person]

Tazar casted a few spells on himself and the others, and then it was Kallisto's turn. Enlarge Person doubled his size, greatly enhancing his strength, but it only affected him.

[Mage Armor]

[Guidance]

[Resistance]

[Detect Poison]

[Endure Elements]

[Shield]

[Detect Secret Doors]

[Detect Undead]

[Detect Magic]

[Protection from Arrows]

"Alright, I'm done. Since we are going to rest now, I used nearly all my mana."

Kallisto seemed quite tired, but was covered in a veritable kaleidoscope of magical energies.

"Now just a few more things real quick. ~la"

That night, Lyann sang three songs, which the Wild Riders would never forget. The _Song of Heroism, Song of Spellpower_ and the _Song of Courage_. They would catch each other humming one or the other from time to time for years to come, but forever regret that they couldn't quite remember them.

"Now that the songs are still affecting you... ~fa"

[Seal Fate]

"And it's done! It should last until this very hour tomorrow! ~la"

~O~

The following day, a dire crime was committed. As if 10000 ankheg voices were all whining out "OP NERF PLZ!" as one, and where then silenced. A true ankheg massacre, an ankheg genocide.

The Wild Riders did leave the eggs alone, however. After all, ankhegs enrich the farmers fields.

Lyann did her best at supporting them with crossbow shots. Her best at failing horribly, that is. 3 meters off to the right, 4 meters off to the left, too high, too low. Even sadder, not all of it was fake.

Golden Ballade may be a max level adventurer, but Lyann Du Lumiere was a complete noob around a crossbow. To begin with, even back in Yggdrasil, on the few occasions she fought, she used either the spear or the sword, so ranged weapons were a complete mystery and torture for her.

The Wild Riders had sad, bittersweet smiles the whole time.

When one of her bolts hit Grumnir in the back (nothing happened, thankfully. Stoneskin took the hit for him), they asked her to stand back and cheer them on, perhaps use a healing spell if needed.

~O~

Ren was crying as she laughed in the scrying room.

"Don't be a meanie! She can't help it!"

Her sister admonished her sternly, but she was chuckling as well.

"B-behold, the mighty Incantatrix!"

Ren was having trouble speaking, and breathing, and standing straight.

~O~

Lyann felt miserable. Her expression spoke volumes. A huge "do not talk to me" sign for everyone to see. She went back into town with her new party, without saying a word. Ate her lunch, without saying a word, and went around with Kallisto, without saying a word.

"But, you know, your support is really amazing! I can't believe one of my spells could do that much damage! And your singing voice is fantastic!"

"..."

"So, don't worry! Like Tazar said, it's a trade off! A trade off! You can't be good at everything! It's okay, I can't use a crossbow either!"

"I bet you can do it better than me ~fa"

Lyann had a gloomy cloud hanging over her pretty face while looking at the small hand crossbow hanging from Kallisto's hip.

"Uhmm.. so, tell me about your home?"

"Its a city, it's that way, really pretty."

She vaguely gestured towards the mountains.

"So... where did you learn magic? You said the Incantatrix job was rare, right?"

"Yeah, because people feels its useless in combat... which it is. I guess."

"Ah... ah... y-you know, I was a slave until the Wild Ride rescued me."

"Uhm? oh. Why do you keep your collar, then? Doesn't it remind you of bad stuff? ~fa"

"Well, its magical and I can't remove it. Plus this region is really dangerous for elves. We are considered no different from goblins, so without it, there's a chance I would be attacked. With it, whoever did that would need to compensate my 'master' you know?"

"Ah. I'm sorry, that must be awful. Want me to remove it for you? I'm pretty sure I can at least make it non-magical so you can put it on and off whenever you want. ~fa"

"Really!? Y-yes, that would be great!"

[Break Enchantment]

A sound like shattering glass sounded around them.

"There you go. ~fa"

"Really? You are amazing, Oh Gods, wow I..."

"I still can't fight my way out of a paper bag, though."

"...c´mon, I'll buy you a drink."

~O~

That night, she wove a new amulet, enhanced the party, and once she was sure Kallisto and Cathya were sleeping, Lyann left the room, then teleported back to Tengoku Junzi. They had agreed on her giving them regular reports, after all.

That is why, all six of the city rulers were sitting around the meeting table once again.

"I really can't fight using a sword? What about my spear? ~fa?"

"You can't show off too much. Right now you are the super talented but physically challenged Incantatrix. It's a good cover."

"Fuu... ~sol"

"Anyway, please make your report."

Mako gently urged her on.

"Alright... ~fa"

Lyann explained to them about the technological level of the Dragonic Kingdom, about the adventurer's plate ranking system, and about the war with the rakshasa.

Having been created with the sensibilities of celestials. Both the lion-headed general Li and the falcon-headed general Subutai were ready to take action against them.

Man-eating demons having a country of their own and using humans as cattle.

Three cities already had been conquered.

The country looks like it is about to fall, soon!

"Wait."

Mako immediately calmed them down. Burlaug was nodding with a grave expression.

"We can't simply empty Tengoku Junzi and send everyone to war. We don't know these people, or their shared history with the rakshasas, if they really are that. The tales you said suggested that they were very fond of melee, and the rakshasa we know, hate it."

"It could be a offshoot, a degeneration of their gene pool could explain it. If a whole nation grew up from a small group, odds are that their gene pool looks more like a filthy pond. And while there are tiger beastmen, and even weretigers, neither of them have the reversed hand traits that the rakshasa have, Mako-sama."

"Oh, that is wonderful, Subutai-san!"

"What is, Mako-sama?"

"You are voicing your opinion! That is great! We were really worried about you three just going with whatever we said, you know? Please feel free to do so whenever you want!"

"Y-yes, Mako-sama."

"And please stop the sama"

"I am afraid that is impossible, Mako-sama."

"..alright. So, what can we do, what should we do, and perhaps more importantly, what shouldn't we do, and why? Let's go around the table, and everyone try to add at least one item to every list, alright? I will begin if everyone agreed with that?"

Everyone was alright with it, so the exuberant angel continued.

"We could send our army and assist the Dragonic Kingdom. We should prioritize defending the people. We mustn't allow the Dragonic kingdom to become dependent on us. We don't know if we are here to stay. Please, Burlaug, continue."

Mako sat down, and Burlaug, who was sitting to her right, stood up. The dwarf thanked Mako for the chance, and began talking.

"We could send lupinals and hounds to defend towns and countryside communities. They are well versed with the wilderness, after all, and while most of our troops look like beastmen of some kind, there's little chance that anyone will confuse a cat and a dog."

Everyone nodded, so Burlaug continued.

"We should establish peaceful relationships with the Dragonic Kingdom. They are our neighbors, and we are probably squatting in their lands, so giving them a favorable impression should go a long way towards peace in the future. Finally, we shouldn't send all of our forces. General Li and his Pride have bathed themselves in glory in numerous occasions already. Isn't it the time for general Subutai and his Golden Horde to shine?"

Burlaug finished speaking, and sat down. Then it was the turn of General Subutai.

"Thank you. I agree completely with administrator Burlaug, and beg Mako-sama's pardon for going out of the should could and shouldn't former that she so graciously established."

He waited for Mako to nod and give her permission before continuing.

"The [Silver Pride] of general Li has covered itself in glory on nine different occasions, while my [Golden Horde] has been relegated to a support role. This certainly has allowed the troops to gain some experience, yet we have never had a chance to take the fight against evil to its own domain yet. Based on our lupinal scouts reports, I estimate a 99.99994% chance of complete eradication of the enemy within a 278 miles radius of Tengoku Junzi in the next 72 hours, with geometrical expansion of the pacified zone every 48 hours thereafter. Since we have an adequate number of shamans, we can create our own sources of fresh water as we ad-"

"General. ~fa"

"Yes, Lyann-sama?"

"I assume you have read The Art of War? ~fa"

"Yes of course! As Lyann-sama recommended, I have already memorized it on its entirety, as well as Musashi's _The Book of Five Rings_ , Gulliman's _Codex Astartes_ , _Secret History of the Mongols_ and _Low Level Hell_ by Hugh Mills!"

"Then you know that your job is not to give us a play-by-play report on your battle plans, only to achieve victory. Once you begin to move, you will be the sole entity in command of the [Golden Horde]. The ruler's job is to rule over the country, decide state policies and execute them. There is nothing as dangerous as a king who thinks himself a general. ~fa"

"It is as you say, Lyann-sama."

"In that case, I ask you in order to create those policies. Is victory attainable? ~fa"

"Certainly."

All three angels looked at each other, and nodded.

"General Subutai, I hereby order you, take the [Golden Horde] beyond Tengoku Junzi and wipe out the rakshasa infesting our neighbor's lands. Do not forget that yours is a peacekeeping force, not a conquering army. Try to leave a favorable impression with the locals, understood?"

"Yes, Mako-sama!"

"Anything else we should be aware of? Anyone?"

As Mako asked, her sister lifted her hand.

"Yes?"

"I'd like to update Lyann on the sample results from-"

"Just give her the report."

"But, I even [Fabricate]d a projector! It'll be fun, I promise!"

"Just give her the report."

"Meanie."

~O~

Once the meeting was over with, Lyann teleported back to Idalgo, then walked back to the room she was sharing with Kallisto and Cathya.

"If you are going for a walk at night, you should wear your hood."

Cathya was barely awake, and half grumbled at her.

"I am sorry. I will do so in the future. ~fa"

~O~

In the morning, the Wild Riders left town, heading towards the capital in order to collect their bounty from the Ankheg Hunt. Lyann (Golden Ballade, to be honest) had carefully cleaned the giant insect bodies, peeled off their exoskeletons, cured them and packed them in neat piles, which she then stored inside her [Handy Haversack], so the party was nowhere as burdened as they had originally feared they would be for the return trip.

"Oh, Lyann is so useful."

Albion said while patting her head as she peeled away the ankhegs.

"Yes, she can really be depended on."

Tazar said while patting her head as she cured the shells.

"Thank you for taking care of us."

Cathya said while patting her head as she stored away the packaged shells.

"You are trying to cheer me up because I can't shoot, aren't you!? ~sol"

"No, no, you are really useful!" x5

"Fuuu... ~sol"

Lyann pouted a little, inflating her cheeks as she shook her fists before her chest for a few moments. She quickly calmed down and sighed, then took out a acoustic guitar from her [Handy Haversack].

"What are you doing?"

Kallisto was interested. Elves liked chord instruments, though they were limited to hand lyres. Something as advanced as an instrument with an acoustic box was unknown on this world.

"The _Song of Celerity_ and the _Song of the Stout Heart_ are great for long distance travel. But you don't seriously expect me to sing all the way to the capital, right? ~fa"

"Why didn't you use them last night?"

"I didn't know we would be moving out today. ~fa"

And so, with a song that quadrupled their walking speed, and a song to ward of exhaustion, they set out on their way towards the capital.

They were simply walking, but to a third party observer, it looked as if they were running.

~O~

"They must have seen us, catch them!"

The waiting brigands started running behind the Wild Riders party, but the distance only increased over time. The more they ran, the further away they seemed to be, until their targets became dots in the distance, and then disappeared altogether.

"Ugh... ah- pff! T-they... sure run fast.. ugh!"

With that, the brigands leader fainted.

Behind him, there was a mile-long trail of fainted bodies lying on the road. Of course, the alchemist was one of the first to pass out. Working all day on a lab did not lead to a great constitution.

A bit later, they decided that it didn't matter. She didn't look that hot, anyway.

~O~

And with that sour grapes comment, we end part I at last!

Author Notes:

Wow, this chapter was so much longer, yet faster to write, than what I had originally expected it to be. Looking at it now, its 30+ pages long on my word processor. I will split it in two so it doesn't turns into a massive info dump... yeah, I'm going to do that.

Oh magic 8-ball, tell me the future!

Will the Wild Riders get some mounts to ride? (Signs point to no)

Did the readers already guess the true form of the [Golden Horde]? (signs point to yes)

Will Lyann learn to use a ranged weapon? (Signs point to no)

Will we see more dwarves in the next chapter? (Signs point to yes)

Will the brigands finally manage to catch the Wild Riders? (signs point to no)

Next Chapter: Part II

Ahh... this chapter was so fucking long, I feel bad about asking my friends to proofread it for me... please let me know if anything major requires correcting, I wasn't lying when I said I'm 99% blind you know? So spellchecking is really hard.


	4. Chapter 3 - Second Part

Chapter 3 – Part II

Grand quest at the adventurer's guild – The search for the celestial city!

"Alright then. We will now begin experiment #12! Please make sure to write everything down Virupaksa."

"Yes, Ren-sama!"

Both women were standing at the center of the sewer system under Tengoku Junzi. It was not as glamorous as standing on the windy plains to draw forth minerals from hundreds of kilometers under the surface, but it was an equally impotant business.

Since the city was real now, and populated with hundreds of thousands of NPCs, it was now actually important to have working sewers.

Many would argue that it was exceedingly important.

Tengoku Junzi had been transmigrated unto the new world a little over two weeks ago, and while the problem had initially escaped everyone's notice, the smell of the stagnant sewers was slowly beginning to rise forth into the city.

Obviously, such thing was unacceptable for the heavenly city, and wind spells could only deal with the scent itself, not its cause.

"First, we need to reach the very center of the sewer system. It should be under the citadel, according to our maps. I apologize for taking so long to deal with this issue, Virupaksa."

"No, no, I am sure that Ren-sama had plenty of urgent matters to deal with!"

"Uhmm... honestly, they were important, to me, But this probably had priority. I'm not infallible, you know? We already told so to the generals Li and Subutai, as well as administrator Burlaug, but if you feel you need to point something out, or that we are making a mistake, you need to let us know, alright?"

"But..."

"Understand?"

"Yes, Ren-sama."

"Alright. Now, according to the map, we are right in the middle of the sewer system here... this was meant to be your area, right?"

"Ah... yes, Ren-sama."

"Back in Yggdrassil, the sewers were never actually used, so it was fine, but that's not the case anymore. As one of the Four Kings, from today onwards, you will help taking care of the city ittself. We can't have you living in the sewers anymore."

"Understood."

Virupaksa was one of the three 'Redeemed Succubus' of Tengoku Junzi. There was no special meaning to them being three. It was simply a testament of how popular her character type was.

The idea of having a succubus fall in love with the mortal hero she was meant to corrupt, then abandoning her wicked ways and embracing the path of righteousness in the name of love, before finally carrying on the torch after the hero's inevitable demise -sometimes from old age, but most often, as a final sacrifice to save her life- was incredibly popular with hardcore fantasy fans.

She had bright red fluffy hair and slightly paler skin, which made her look as if she was made of strawberry milk with cherries on top. Of course, being a succubus, her figure was an avatar of lust, yet being the incarnation of the courtly love ideals of Lord_Quixote, her creater, she wore extremely conservative clothing, which ov course did nothing to hide the beauty of her figure.

She was usually dressed in in a long white dress, with golden armor plates in the form of needlessly large shoulder pauldrons, a shapely chest plate and armored skirt, which nonetheless protected her as if she was in full plate. Her horns and eyes were bright gold, as was the glowing whip she normally kept wrapped around her wasp's waist.

"Uhmm... there's an exit above us, that's good. Can you please fly up and open the manhole for me? I'm going to start now."

Virupaksa nodded, and immediately spread her wings, flying upwards and pushing the lid of the sewer's entrance aside. Despite her considerable strenght, she had no leverage in mid air, so she had to land on the nearby stair, hold to it with one hand, and push, then slide, the lid out of the way.

'So, let's see... first lets use [Move Earth] to incline all of the sewers in the city by 1° towards this point. The waste shouldn't start moving with just that yet... I hope. If the spell range is 4400ft or 1,341.12 meters. It can affect an area of 750ft^2 and 10ft deep... uhmm I'm going to have to enhance it by a factor of 10... I guess it'll be a little expensive, but we do have plenty of gold in the treasure now... about 2.2 tons of gold worth?'

Ren paused for a moment after thinking that. Then decided nonbody would notice, and if they did, she could always [Fabricate] some more anyway.

It was as if a god had gently pushed the ground under Tengoku Junzi. Now, it was just barely dented towards the middle of the city, as if someone was poking at a pliable membrane.

To Ren's infinite relief, this by itself was not enough to cause the waste in the sewers to begin moving.

At its lowest point in the middle, the sewers had gained 75ft of depth. She carefully, every so carefully, created a [Sphere of Anihilation] a few feet above that lowest spot. Once the enchantment was complete, she quickly moved back to a safe distance and concentrated to move it lower, as slowly as possible, so it first touched the ground, and then continued to move down into it for a few more feet.

It did so with absolutely no resistance from the stone ground. After all, a _sphere of annihilation_ is a two-foot diameter black globe of absolute nothingness. A _sphere of annihilation_ is actually a void - a hole in the continuity of the multiverse - and any matter which comes in contact with a sphere is instantly sucked into the void and utterly destroyed. Characters annihilated this way cannot be restored by any mortal magic.

This is why she didn't dare craft it elsewhere and then bring it here. There was always a risk, however slight, that someone would touch it along the way. Instead, she left it almost complete, then finished its creation in situ before lowering it into place.

Now that the sphere of annihilation buried itself the bottom of a perfectly vertical 6ft deep hole, she placed an adamantite and orichalcum metal grid on the hole entrance and bolted it into place. It would be absolutely horrifying if someone slipt in and was anihilated by accident, after all.

"Alright Virupaksa, we are getting out now!"

The succubus nodded and climbed out, followed by Ren a few moments later.

"What now, Ren-sama?"

"Now that all of the sewer grid is leaning towards one specific spot, I turn the channels on it into slickstons and call it a day. I hope."

"Slickstone?"

"It is a very rare type of rock that is as slippery as to be frictionless. Once all the sewer channels are made from it, any waste will have no choice but to flow down as gravity demands, even with a inclination as subtle as 1°."

"How will we patrol the sewers, or repair them if needed?"

"I'm not turning the lateral walkways into slickstone, only the channels in the middle."

Virupaksa nodded, and Ren got busy casting [Stone Transformation]

"Wouldn't it be nice to turn the outer side of the city walls into slickstone as well, Ren-sama? It would make it impossible to climb them."

"Oh! That's a good idea, Virupaksa! Let's do that next. See? This is why you should feel free to ask questions and suggest ideas!"

"Yes, Ren-sama!"

The spell was done. All at the same time, all the waste that the inhabitants of Tengoku Junzi had dropped into the sewers over the last 2 weeks began moving towards the lowest spot in the city, which happened to be right under their feet, in the central square before the entrance to the Golden Citadel.

~O~

WHACK! WHACK!

Mako hit both Ren and Virupaksa on the head (with a copy of Ren's [Fabricate] report. which she had kept at hand just for such occasions).

The angel and the succubus were both sitting in dogeza side by side.

Two weeks of accumulated waste were far more than what would fit all at once through the small opening with the Sphere of Annihilation at the bottom. It had collided like a nightmare wave and quickly filled the central chamber before emerging like a geyser through every manhole in the central square, soiling the once pristine plaza with unmentionable filth.

WHACK!

"Ouch! Why did you hit me again!?"

Ren had a tear hanging from each eye.

Of course, they had cleaned the mess and took 17 showers before Mako would get close to them. Even if Prestidigitation should have supposedly cleaned them perfectly in a single cast, they still felt dirty an hour after their misadventure.

"You made a death trap."

Mako lifted the report again, as if she was ready to use it.

"It's only lethal to vermin, though. I properly placed a lid on top of it."

"It's still a death trap. Go back down and make sure you place proper warning signs."

"Uuuh... but it's filthy down there! The poop literally hit the roof, you know? It went through the roof, actually."

"that's your fault. Take a [Decanter of Endless Water] and use it as a hose for all I care, but place proper warning signs."

"Alright."

"Goodness sake, I'm supposed to be the gentle motherly type and you are turning me into the strict onee-sama character! Oh, and Virupaksa..."

"Y-yes Mako-sama?"

"Ren is right. You can't live in the sewers anymore. Let's find you a room in the citadel, alright? Do you have any preference?"

"Ah! In that case, how about one of the side chambers in the Shrine of Chastity?"

The _Shrine of Chastity_ was the 'boss room' at the end of the 1st closed area of Tengoku Junzi. Well, it's not as if they were in order, really. All chapels were accessible at any one time, but you needed the keys dropped by each and every area guardian if you want to be able to open the _Rainbow Gate_ into the private guild sections.

After all, while it is true that the guild base was designed as an open house and safe haven to all friendly players, it still had a treasury, a throne room, and other private areas where only guild members could be allowed.

So, in order to separate the public sections from those guild-only areas, there were seven lines of defense, known as the "Shrines to the Seven Virtues."

Almost everyone is familiar with the concept of the 7 Deadly Sins, the majority of people has no idea that the 7 Cardinal Virtues even exist.

Chastity, for example, is the opposite of Lust. Chastity means you take your sexual desires and apply them to fit the definition of love. Contrary to popular belief, the word "chastity" does not mean "no sex." Chastity simply means that all partners in a relationship are free from using each other as nothing but objects, or for pure pleasure.

It means approaching each other with love and desire both, not just unhealthy obsession for dark and perverse desires, which would be the dark mirror of chastity, commonly known as lust.

Mako was familiar with Virupaksa's character background. She was a seductress that "fell into the light" for love. That was fine, as she certainly fit perfectly into the definition of "Chastity". The problem was, there already were two other redeemed succubus NPCs in the guild, and both of them lived at the shrine.

It even led to players calling it "The Heavenly Harem" and attacking the shrine just for screenshots and other such memorabilia.

If she allowed yet another succubus to permanently move into the shrine, she wouldn't know how to respond to such jokes.

"Please, Mako-sama. I wish to light a candle at the altar every night, on behalf of my departed love."

"Ah! A-alright, then... please tell Dawn and Dusk that you will be moving in with them."

Mako is weak against romance.

"Yes! Thank you, Mako-sama!"

The heart-tipped tail of the pink succubus was swaying behind her as she wagged her tail like a puppy. She seemed to be beaming, so Mako gave up on chastising her any further, and let her go.

"How nice, our succubus harem is complete."

WHACK!

Mako smacked Ren again for that comment. Apparently she did know how to respond to such jokes, after all.

"Get started with the cleaning and the sign posting, and hurry up so we can have dinner together."

"Yes ma'am."

"A-and don't make me out to be the strict older sister type!"

Mako cried out softly, a tear hanging from each eye.

~O~

"Faster, run faster!"

A party of Platinum adventurers was running through the grass covered plains. It was so tall that it reached to about the chest of their tallest, and completely covered their petite mage.

Even though you would call it running, it actually was an orderly retreat. Their sturdier members, a couple of siblings in heavy armor, each holding a tower shield and a short sword, were lingering behind the rest of the party, ready to defend them if need be.

They were a group of professionals, and had been together for years, after all.

Of course, it still didn't prevent the shield bearers from hurrying up their friends. After all, they were being chasen by five tigermen, which were not an enemy they could safely deal with.

If an average soldier is level 3-to-6.

As platinum adventurers, they were at about level 20-to-25 themselves. If you took their teamwork into consideration, they were able to take on one or two rakshasa without much trouble, even though the average Rakshasa, or tigermen as they are locally known, is level 25-to-30.

Three was pushing it.

Four was reckless.

Five meant a desperate struggle where, even if they won, many of them would die.

Thus, retreating as quickly as possible was the right thing to do.

Of course, they couldn't help but notice.

They heard it long before they saw it. The sound of pipes and drums playing _Scotland the Brave_ somewhere in the distance.

The first thing they saw was a small sphere of light.

It floated by itself, like the world's largest firefly, moving on a beeline towards them. It bathed them with golden light. A warm sensation of frienliness and safery came from it as it seemed to inspect them.

[Detect Evil]

It had somehow cast a spell.

Apparently satisfied by the lack of reaction to the spell, it launched a ray of light towards the night sky, as if calling for the stars to join it down on the ground.

And the stars came down.

Soon, dozens of such beings came into existence around them. In absolute silence, they simply arrived out of nowhere.

It was beautiful and surreal and it made them feel safe. Seeing them appear was like how the sun suddenly peeks from behind the clouds.

Then they spoke, somehow.

"Do not fear. We are here to help."

[Aid] x6

They cast a spell on each of the weary adventurers.

Their fear gone, they felt fresh, energized and relaxed.

It was at this time that the first of the rakshasa caught up with them. It was running after the party, when it saw the floating _lanterns_ in the distance.

A long forgotten foe.

The vile instincts of its species woke up. It was a battle his kin lusted for at a genetic level.

A battle against pure, untainted _good._

The music was strange, floating off in the distance, far away. But before its eyes, there was prey, and just between it and himself, there was a dozen or so creatures it had never seen before.

Yet, it hated them. The rakshasa hated them more than anything it had ever hated before.

~O~

Juno was a tough fighter. He had founded _The Green Wolf Heads_ together with Alissa, his sister. Over time they had been joined by Amelia, Irth, Sira, and Brahilm, and had been together for five years now.

Even with his years of experience... no, precisely because of his years of experience, he was under no illusion about his chances when fighting five tigermen at the same time.

"We will help. Run towards the music."

"Run."

"Be safe."

As the two dozen or so orbs of light and the half dozen tigermen began maneuvering and positioning for battle, he had to make a decision.

Abandon his would-be-rescuers, or stand and fight by their side?

He had to think of his friend's safety first, It was his obligation and duty towards them.

He could feel the chill wind of the plains, blowing cold and uncaring past his back towards the tigermen.

Then he decided.

"Many thanks. Let's go."

He led his friends as they ran.

Behind him, two dozen _lanterns_ , the humblest and smallest of all celestials, were about to sell their lives dear in order to let him and his friends survive.

~O~

It was a surreal scene. The orbs of light did their best to attack the tigermen with beams of searing light, while their enemies hurled spears and shoot arrows in turn.

By nature, a lantern is tougher than it looks, except when faced with the weapons, natural or borne, of devils and demons.

A rakshasa, a bestial type of devil, is much tougher than it has a right to be. It takes greatly reduced damage from all blows, with a very specific, very narrow weakness against blessed piercing weapons, such as arrows and bolts, albeit a dagger, rapier or stiletto will do just fine in a close quarters fight.

A lantern's level ranges from 1-to-5

A rakshasa's level ranges from 25-to-30

There were two dozen lanterns.

There was half a dozen rakshasa.

The angels had no chance.

~O~

"Now!"

Juno, Alissa and Sira charged the tigermen's exposed back while the orbs of light took them from the front.

The wind in the plains was cold and strong. It did well at hiding their approach from the beastmen's sensitive noses.

With all six of them attacking by surprise, two rakshasa's died in the blink of an eye.

Brahilm, their cleric, had blessed their bows, short swords and crossbows while their group ran around to join the fight from behind.

Then it was two dozen of the humblest angels in heaven, plus half a dozen platinum adventurers with time to prepare, versus 4 beastmen flanked on both sides.

"Kill them all!"

The rakshasa's leader roared into the night as he charged against Juno.

Alissa joined her brother, and their shields interlocked with practiced ease, creating a thick and wide wall of steel flanked by _blessed_ short swords.

He was left handed. She was right handed. This was their favorite fighting style.

They pushed back the tigermen's leader and stabbed at him from both sides, exposing naught but their sword arms to the enemy as Sira flanked and shoot with her crossbow at the distracted foe.

The rakshasa died when a bolt entered its skull through an eye, and the rest of its group died shortly after, either burnt to death by rays of _searing light_ or poked full of blessed bolts courtesy of _The Green Wolf Heads_.

~O~

A few minutes later.

Rows of perfectly orderly soldiers with wolf heads and legs, each wearing a lowland pattern glengarry and with a glowing magical long sword at their backs, were marching as one while playing energetic drums and bagpipes, which were a unknown and strange instrument to Juno and his friends.

They paraded before the Green Wolf Heads on their way straight towards Sorventh, which according to their scouts, was both the closest city to Tengoku Junzi, and currently under rakshasa control, placing it at the very top of general Subutai's list of targets.

While it was true that many angels could teleport, it was not a universal trait, and the general had no intention of needlessly splitting his forces. He would arrive soon enough anyway, thanks to the marching music played by the bards of his army's band.

"Brahilm, what are we looking at?"

Irt, the party's ranger, looked at their cleric as he asked.

"I... I only recognize them from old pictures in sacred books. I thought they were a metaphor, children tales."

They were plenty of lupinal guardinals, regal hybrids between man and wolf. Their long, lean and rangy bodies were covered in a darker uniform than the rest of the army, the better to blend into shadow. They were marching at the front, the foremost amongst them playing the drums and bagpipes that the Green Wolf Head had heard before. These wolfmen were the first Tengoku Junzi troops seen by the natives of this world.

Invulnerable against the blows of non-mundane weapons, only a silver or magical weapon could even hope to hurt them, and thus were general Subutai's choice for his [Golden Horde] shock troops and commandos.

Despite their looks, no one in the party, experienced adventurers as they were, confused them with werewolves. Not only was their overall presence a lot less bestial, but the werewolf trademark brutality was absent from their eyes, replaced with intelligence and a friendly, too-cocky-by-half smile in their expressive faces.

Behind them came thousands of row after row of troops that truly deserved the title of "warhorse."

The mongols of Earth had conquered their world thanks to their horses, but general Subutai had literally done away with the middlemen and directly recruited horse-headed equinal guardinals into his [Golden Horde].

They resemble 7 ½' tall hybrids between humans and percheron warhorses. Their chests and shoulders having truly heroic proportions, and their long arms ending in thick, iron-hard fingers that make a creditable hoof whenever curled into a fist. Their legs are even more horse-like, with a reversed knee and true horse's hooves for feet.

Their lower limbs are covered with short, bristly horsehair, and their faces are long and narrow. A long, wild mane runs from the crest of their heads down the middle of their backs, before it disappears under the neck of their clean and spotless uniforms.

Unlike the lupinals, the equinals have no special resistances to harm, but their uniforms were all mithril full plates, courtesy of Celi Malefactor.

Honestly, Ren was just looking for a excuse to play with all that mithril, yet couldn't make a dent into Tengoku Junzi's reserves, even after dressing every equinal with it.

Their armors had their appearance modified so it would fall in line with the garb of the [Golden Horde] and be easier for the massive equinals to wear.

Furthermore, even though they carried no close quarter weapons, each quinal is strong – truly strong. The typical equinal has the strength of a stone giant, with a few exceptional individuals being a shade stronger. In a fight, they disdain the use of weapons and wade into battle with a boxer-like routine of devastating jabs and uppercuts. The blow from an equinal's fist is easily able to splinter stone or crumple plate armor like paper.

For ranged combat, they each carried a massive iron greatbow, almost as tall as they were. Rakshasa are extremely vulnerable against blessed piercing weapons, and General Subutai planned to take ample advantage of this weakness.

Behind the equinals came hundreds of supply wagons, siege engines and other war machines, pulled by muscular sleipnirs of silverly white hair, and manned by cervidal guardinals, deer-like troops that made the support and engineer corps of the [Golden Horde].

At first look, one may confuse them with satyrs due to their humanoid heads, but the cervidals are much taller and more regal, carrying themselves with superior dignity and a serious air. There were also a few ursinals, physically imposing but peaceful bear-headed shamans and healers who were indispensable for the army's well being.

Of course, looking at their mighty frame, noone would doubt their prowess in battle, were their ire to be ignited.

And floating above and next to this army of heaven, were hundreds of lantern archons, shedding gentle light as if they were golden torches.

Juno and his party were already familiar with their kin, and their presence relaxed them, somehow easting down any awe or fear that they, perhaps naturally, should have felt while looking at the marching troops.

"You faked a retreat, turned around and assisted my troops. Nicely done!"

There was a sound of mighty wings.

Absorbed by the sight before them, not one of the Green Wolf Heads noticed the approach of the army's general until he was practically above them.

Of course, General Subutai wouldn't do something as impolite as holding a conversation while literally speaking down to them. He landed nearby and walked closer, then thanked them by placing a hand over his heart as he bowed.

The general is slightly over 6' tall, but unlike the rest of his troops, he was wearing a more modern uniform, reminiscent of WWII british pilots. His creator had thought that since he was a flying NPC, having it wear a kilt would be in poor taste, and taken the chance to go with something that looked both flavorful and practica.

Since it would be naturally colder at high altitude, the warm-looking aviator jacket seemed like a great fit. Once Lyann had decided to go with a modern uniform, she had to choose between keeping the general's original form, or change it into something more fitting to his new clothes.

By the way, the reason the [Golden Horde] standard uniform was modeled after the lowland pattern glengarry, was because the kilt worked much better than pants with the troops animal legs.

That is the story of how, by degrees, the general was slowly and carefully modeled into a more humanoid form. Instead of having wings for arms, like a normal avoral guardinal, he had both wings and arms, and rather than a pair of eagle legs and claws, he had a human's lower torse.

Fearing that she had gone too far with the changes, Lyann tried to return some of his animal appearance to the NPC, and so, while normal avorals have a human face with a mostly animal body, the general was built the other way around, with a much more humanoid body shape, but the fierce head of a mongolian golden eagle.

It took her three days of playing around with sliders, menus and submenus, not to mention cash item shops, but thankfully Yggdrassil understood that customization was a very serious business for its user base, so she was not only able to save her work between seasons, she was also able to share it in the game forums and ask for the pro's help.

In the end, the general was born from the effort of dozens of players who liked his concept, and gave hundreds of total man hours to making sure he was as impressive as he should be to properly fulfill his role.

Of course, while creating a max level NPC, Lyann had a lot of wiggle room to buy him class levels, racial levels, flaws and traits, and in the end managed to raise his kind's natural defenses, from _immune to non-magical weapons_ (a trait similar to that of the lupinals) and spells under 4th level, to a much more powerful set of defenses, albeit she was pissed about not being able to discard his kind's weakness to silver.

Now, he had a 85% chance to automatically ignore any magical attack, and complete immunity to weapons of quality lesser than [Divine]. Or you could throw yourself at him with a humble piece of silver cutlery. That would indeed ignore his damage immunity.

Of course, he won't die in one hit just because you are fighting with a silver weapon. It doesn't mean you already won, but it certainly makes it a fairer fight.

"Your troops? T-this is your army?"

Juno looked at the general with wary eyes, and rightfully so. Whether it was his eyes or mannerisms, the creature before him exuded intelligence and power, with a very obvious capacity for violence easily surpassing that of anyone he had met before.

"Not mine. Every warrior in it, including myself, belong to the Exalted Ones, rulers of Tengoku Junzi. In their name and under their command, we have left our home amongst the mountains to help our neighbors in the dragonic kingdom."

It was a speech that the general had practiced together with Burlaug, for whenever he would finally meet and introduce himself to the locals.

"I am general Subutai, and this is Tengoku Junzi's [Golden Horde]. It is an honor to meet you. Are you perhaps local warriors? We could use some guides. My lanterns did a thorough air recognizance during the day, and the lupinal rangers checked from the ground, but doubtlessly, our liberation of Sorventh will only benefit from a coordinated effort between our troops and this country's own."

"Eh?"

The Green Wolf Head members looked at each other, at a loss for words.

~O~

"Uhmm mm hmm~ "

Mako was humming happily as she worked in her office.

There were several reference books on her desk, as well as a small, seemingly insignificant little glowing bean seed floating inside a sealed crystal flask before her.

It was rare that she had time to herself nowadays, but things had finally calmed down enough for her to do what she liked best. Create.

Back in Yggdrassil, Mako enjoyed playing around with the NPC and spell creation options way more than she enjoyed fighting or working on magic items.

Well, almost everyone had their own reasons to play. That was Yggdrassil's beauty.

Lyann liked to abuse the rules, and kept coming up with the weirdest builds just because she could.

Ren liked to thinker. It was thanks to her crowning achievement, the [Throne of Joy], that Sancta Sanctorum had two standing armies, each hundreds of thousands strong.

It was true that their guild lacked even a single World class item, but they stayed completely off the PvP ladder, after all, so it couldn't be helped.

Instead, they had a truly, truly outrageous collection of items, going from lesser to divine class.

Such was the natural result of being a crafter's guild with hundreds of members and more than 10 years of experience.

Lesser → 87,455

Low → 77,477

Minor → 47,241

Medium → 21,881

Major → 17,537

Greater → 16,479

High → 12.005

Highest → 10,751

Legacy → 7,579

Relic → 5,171

Legendary → 1,299

Divine → 777

Guild → 1

World → 0

World Champion → 0

Obviously, they had more than a single copy of each item. Having 777 different Divine items would be insane.

Unlike practically every other guild, however, the guild item of [Sancta Sanctorum] was neither a mighty sword, powerful hammer, arcane staff, or unbreakable shield. The item that represented their guild was the [Throne of Joy].

Back in Yggdrassil, one could see the emotional state of a NPC by fairly cartoonish means, such as hearts or smiley faces floating upwards into nothingness.

Normally, it did nothing but add to the colorfulness of a NPC. Troops would cheer up after successfully repelling a siege, or when two guild members married in the guild's chapel.

The [Thone of Joy] however, harvested the ambient happiness that would otherwise be forever lost, and turned it into Ambrosia, which could heal and feed, but also granted a tiny amount of exp when used.

The simple act of taking down an ambrosia-dropping mob granted dozens of thousands of exp points, while taking a bite of ambrosia granted but 1exp, making it pointless to farm just for its exp value.

Many commented in the forums that the company was playing a prank on them on the same level as when they introduced the [Mask of Envy] as a xmas event.

Still, since it could be used as a max level healing potion, and even granted minor buffs upon consumption, it was a rather popular item.

Thanks to the [Throne of Joy], however, [Sancta Sanctorum] was able to acquire a steady, reliable source of ambrosia, which had an exceedingly important use for good-aligned crafters of all types.

It could replace personal exp costs, which normally kept players from venturing into crafting at all. This explained why Sancta Sanctorum had hundreds of times more magical items than any other guild.

It should be repeated, however, that crafting pretty much anything had a exp cost. This involved items and NPCs, but also spells.

This was not a problem for [Sancta Sanctorum]. It had no World class items, but:

It had a standing population of 1,300,000 level 1 NPCs in its 'city' sections.

Its [Golden Horde] was made by 200,073 NPCs, including General Subutai, and its [Silver Pride] was of comparable size and strength.

It was a guild item which perfectly reflected its guild master's beliefs. Mako's beliefs.

Evil rushes to consume itself, while Good marches towards progress with a steady and firm step.

The more happy NPCs they had, the more ambrosia they had. The more ambrosia they had, the more NPCs they could create, in an ever-expanding spiral of growth.

~O~

The Wild Riders had finally arrived at Daurgothoth, capital of the Dragonic Kingdom. Under the influence of Lyann's _Marching Song_ they made incredibly good time, and her _Song of Endurance_ meant that they did not get tired or hungry during the trip.

The city was quite large, with a strong, thick crenelated wall connecting multiple guard towers at regular intervals. The gates were double, with a bridge tower protecting a side of the foldable bridge over the deep and wide moat that surrounded the whole city.

Truly, one could see that it was a fortress city meant to endure any siege.

"Ah, we're finally here, let's stop for a while."

Albion signaled a stop, so they sat alongside the road, taking advantage of a fallen log from where the city could be seen.

"Lyann, don't take it the wrong way, but before we arrive at the guild house and sign you up as an official party member, I think we deserve to know what you really look like."

He said calmly and without any hint of hostility. He sat down and pulled out his water skin to have a sip while he waited for her response.

"Ah... it's a bit of a history. I really wouldn't mind showing you, but, could you hear me first? There are two reasons I shouldn't show you. ~fa"

The songstress sat on the tree log and stretched her legs. She was more than beautiful enough to catch the eye of her party members regardless of their sexual oriantation, but knowing that it was a lie certainly curbed any enthusiasm they may had otherwise shown.

"Git on with it, lady Lyann."

Grumnir sat and crossed his arms.

"Well, the first is, I think it would scare you... please let me finish. This is not exactly what happened, but its... as close as I can explain it. ~fa"

She took pause, crossed her right leg over the left, and supported both hands on her knees as she began talking.

"This is my original appearance, alright? Now, think of an accident that forever changes how someone looks in some pretty majoe ways. I am sure that plenty of things do come to mind. Maybe an acident with boiling water, or oil? A runaway horse kicking someone in the face, confused peasants branding the face face of a scared and even more scared girl who was just awakening to her magic... the point is, this is how I looked before _that_ happened, so I think of it as my true appearance. It is not the way I look now without magic, but to me, this is me, the _real_ me. Can you understand that? ~fa"

Her new friends were quiet. They either nodded or looked ashamed.

"Ah! Those are just examples, though! Don't worry, none of those things happened, alright? Just examples! There really _was_ an accident, however. At least I don't think anyone did it on purpose. ~fa"

"Curse me for a fool, lass! If ye wanna show how ye were before, that's fine with me, really."

Tazar declares so loudly, and most of the party agreed.

"But you know, I think most everyone will agree, we like you good enough already that whatever you look like won't spook us. So, whenever you feel like letting us see, it'll be alright."

Cathya, the party's trapmaster, spoke while standing up, feet at shoulder distance and hands on her hips.

"Ah... the second reason is, I promised I would go back to Tengoku Junzi if I was found out, and I don't want to go back just yet. I'd like to see the world with you guys, first. ~sol"

She said so in a teary voice as she made her hands into fists, so they unanimously decided to let it rest.

"Well, just one more thing, then."

"Yes? ~fa?"

"You are very eye catching, could you try and look less so? It'll make moving so much easier inside town."

"It's not enough to keep my hood on? ~fa"

"Nope."

"Alright... let me think... what if I look like a dwarf? Or an elf? ~fa"

She quickly changed her looks to resemble a female dwarf with a slightly chubby face and bright red hair. She had flawless skin, and bright blue eyes.

"Ah! Mah heart! Don't do that, or I'll have ta marry ye!"

Grumnir fell back a step while holding both hands over his heart.

"An elf, then? ~fa"

She turned taller and thin, with slightly longer ears tan the average elf. Her face was slightly elongated, and her build somewhat on the exotic side. She kept the same red hair and blue eyes, however.

"Same problem. You are still too eye catching. Could you change your age?"

"Oh! Yes, that would be easy, I should have thought of that first! ~fa"

Then she was Lyann again, and suddenly she was a lady of about 50 years of age. She was obviously very attractive in her youth, and now looked regal and clssically elegant, like the matron of a noble house who had earned in dignity and class with the years.

"Oh! That's great, It may actually be for the best. I don't think I'd have the nerve to try and be trouble with you around if you looked like that all the time."

"I can't change my voice, however. ~fa"

"That's fine. Just nod or gesture with your hands, and if you need to use music, play the... guitar, was it?"

"I have other instruments, let me think... honestly, I think the best would be a piano, but a elderly lady carrying around a piano would be hard to believe... how about a harp? Oh I have it! A violin! It is elegant, small, and I love the sound! ~fa"

She stored her guitar back into her [Handy Haversack] and retrieved a lustrous violin. Took position with it, and played a brief tune.

"That's wonderful, Lyann. How did you say it was called?"

Kallisto seemed quite moved by the violin's clear sound.

"A violin. ~fa"

"That, use that, definitively."

"Alright! Oh, if someone asks, just introduce me as a bard. It saves time. ~fa"

Her friends nodded, and everyone got up and resumed their path towards the capital.

~O~

"Mako-sama, can I come in?"

Burlaug knocked at the door again.

"Oh, please come in, Burlaug."

As the golden dwarf entered the room, he immediately looked around for anything that could threaten his goddess, Satisfied with the current state of the place, he walked forth and waited for Mako to invite him to talk, holding a hand over his heart and giving a polite bow.

"...you don't need to wait for permission, Burlaug-kun."

"As you wish, Mako-sama. Lady Lyann has successfully reached the Dragonic Kingdom's capital. She is posing as an elderly lady."

"Alright?"

Mako gave him a brief look, then looked down at the softly glowing book again for a moment, placed a page marker on it, and closed it so she could give Burlaug her attention.

"Why did she change her disguise?"

"Her party members claimed that she would draw too much attention with her current appearance."

"I guess it's for the best, then. Was there anything else? Is my sister behaving? No exploding sewers, no new chasm or mountains inside the city?"

"Yes, Ren-sama has left the city and gone to the nearby mountain sides to begin work on the terrace farming platforms you requested of her."

"Ah, that is good to know. We can't just depend on magical substenance forever. The kitchens and restaurants will continue to automatically withdraw gold from the treasury in order to spawn ingredients into their pantries, but it is important that the citizens be capable of growing their own crops."

"Can I ask why?"

"Man needs a reson to be. Something he can be proud of. Even if we don't really need them, any extra crops can be traded with our neighbors at reasonable prices, and thus help improve our relationships through peaceful means."

"Mako-sama is thinking about everyone's happiness, then."

"I think that much should be expected. I may not be a perfect leader, but I should try my best."

"That's wrong! I believe in Mako-sama!"

"Burlaug, we already told you. We are not some kind of supreme being. We will make mistakes, same as everyone else. That is why it is important that ou advice us as needed. That is why I need you to advise me."

The angel he worshiped as a deity smiled at him, and Burlaug could feel himself grow red from tip to toes.

"Yes, Mako-sama! It will be my privilege! Can I ask, why food? I know you said we shouldn't trade magical weapons and the like, but there's plenty of other goods we could more readily acquire."

"Because it's hard, because it is important."

"Please explain it for my benefit."

"Do not underestimate the value of this project. As I said, it is important that our people have jobs, something to be proud of. Growing food is hard, it takes a long time, it needs constant care."

"I see, that is why... _because it is hard, because it is important._ "

"Yes, if it was something they could casually do, they could just as casually toss it aside. It would have no intrinsic value. There is another reason, of course. You asked me once, why did I create you. Would you like me to answer you now?"

"It would be an honor!"

"I created you to manage Tengoku Junzi... don't look at me like that, I'm not over yet. It took a great deal of work, and research, and ultimately, love and admiration. You know about General Subutai's namesake, correct?"

"Yes."

"Back in my original world, there were still problems. We were, as a species, too successful, and this was a weakness. What happens when you have 5 billion people, but can only feed 3 billions? How do you choose who to feed? How do you choose who dies?"

"Even success can lead to danger."

"Indeed. Then, a man came around and began a very simple, peaceful revolution. This man was called Burlaug. He created new types of food, and new farming techniques. His dwarven wheat saved billions every year forever after. He was awarded the highest honors, and is the person I admire the most."

"A farmer."

"A hero who killed noone. He never took down nations, nor trampled thrones under his sandaled feet. He did no violence against his fellow man, but accomplished more than many who came before or after. That is the man I respect the most. Humble things can lead to great things. There is no task so small that it should not be done with care and enthusiasm."

"You created me thinking of that man... were you close?"

"He passed away hundreds of years before I was born!"

"I see! ah... then, those terrace farms,,,?"

"This world's farming techniques and crops are doubtlessly primitive and insufficient. If they weren't, we would see much bigger cities and there would be no need to eat each other. A peaceful revolution. I want you to change the world, Burlaug. Without killing anyone, without hurting anyone. There's no need for you to trample over the thrones of this world, that is not what I hope for you."

"You wish to save everyone, even the enemy?"

"Every life has value, Burlaug-kun."

She smiled to him again. This... this deity of infinite love and mercy! How could he not answer her expectations!?

"But... we have no seeds. Our food appears ready for consumption, and has no insides. Fish have neither bones or guts, plants have no seeds..."

"This will change this. This is a spellseed."

She held the small crystal flask, with its tiny glowing seed inside.

Since she saw that Burlaug was waiting for her to continue, she did so.

"As you know, we created many things before being trapped in this world. I have been studying and, I believe we can still do it. It will require a Over Magic spell, however."

"Oh! The magic that exceeds 10th tier magic!?"

"Yes, they are also known as Super Magic Tier, or just Epic spells. Of course, designing a completely new spell to work according to this world's rules is not easy, and it will likely require a fair amount of exp, but I believe it can be done. First, you start with a spell seed..."

Mako spent the rest of the morning explaining her plans.

~O~

Sorventh was finally within sight. After three days of march, the [Golden Horde] had arrived.

Along the way, the soldiers worked as a well-oiled machine to raise a fortified campsite every night, then disassemble it every morning. The cervidal wagons carried portable kitchens, food supplies and building materials.

The ursinals created permanent, fresh springs of clear, cool water for the army to drink from at every stop.

"Uhmm, we are a few hours ahead of schedule."

General Subutai looked at his pocket watch, then closed it and used [Message] to contact his officers. Immediately, the army began assuming their designed positions according to the previous night's strategy meeting.

The lupinals made a long, two-warriors deep battle line before the army, while the equinals formed ranks behind them. With their siege and war machines behind them, it was an awesome sight on the plains.

"General, the rakshasa haven't rebuilt the walls, as expected."

One of the higher ranked lupinals reported unto the command tent.

"They do not expect any attempts at recapturing the city, it seems. All the better for us."

The general was studying a map of the area, carefully charted from the sky using the lanterns ability to teleport and watch from on high in anticipation to the battle.

"But you lost the element of surprise."

Juno, the leader of the Green Wolf Head adventuring party, pointed out with a sigh.

"That's fine. We could have charged in running, but then the fight would have been street by street and house by house. Civilian casualties would have been enormous, hostage situations would have risen, and the battle would have taken much longer. This way, they will form ranks and meet us in the field."

"What makes you so sure?"

"As you saw, the fortifications are in tatters. They are useless, and they do not know that we wish to protect the civilians. Once they are out on the field, we will be the hammer and the city will be the anvil."

"What? Can't they just retreat into the city?"

"Not for long. Everyone move out! Bards, buff the army! Clerics and shamans, bless the arrows!"

~O~

As the general expected, the rakshasa flowed to the field. He had purposefully arranged his army some distance from the city, giving them ample space to do so. Furthermore, he had lined up downhill, inviting them to take the higher ground.

Well, since the slope was long and constant, the city was even higher behind them, but the obvious tactical advantage was not lost on the Rakshasa commander, so he took the chance so kindly provided by this new enemy.

The general flew towards the lined up rakshasa, looking for a commander amongst them. Once he spotted such a figure, he landed and approached. Plenty of spears and arrows were shot at him, but he shrugged them as if they were a light rain.

"By the will of the Exalted Ones, I've come to discuss the immediate retreat of your forces from the city of Sorventh, territory of the Dragonic Kingdom, as well as terms of peace and reparations for your attack upon it and its citizens!"

"What...? chicken head has a chicken heart, I guess!"

The cats laughed at their commander's words.

"I have a schedule to meet. The Exalted Ones want me to free the countryside as quickly and with as little loss of life as possible. If you are unwilling to discuss terms, then-"

The rakshasa's leader swung his morningstar at the general's head. The general did not try to dodge nor block.

THHD!

It sounded as if the weapon had hit rock.

"Very well then. In accordance with the Geneva Conventions, I hereby declare war upon your nation. I would now like to discuss terms for the treatment of prisoners and guarantee the lives of anyone who would surr-"

The rakshasa pulled his weapon back, looked at it, and swung it at the general's head again.

THHD!

"You are facing a superior force, with better equipment and troops, I would recommend that y-"

THHD!

This time, the general received the blow with his left hand. He sunk his fingers into the spiked iron ball, and crushed it as if had been made of dry bread.

"Very well, whatever the name of your nation was, it no longer matters."

General subutai turned around, and flew back to his lines and signaled the charge.

The [Golden Horde] charged under the sound of bagpipes. Uphill, the rakshasa prepared to receive their charge, but just as there were less than two two dozen feet between both forces, the general's siege engines opened fire.

"I thought those looked weird!"

Brahilm cried out in surprise as the ballista's ammo flew forth.

The rakshasa are highly resilient to damage, but weak against _blessed_ piercing weapons. The general had consulted with Ren, and within the hour, she had designed and crafted large repeating crossbows for him.

They were large enough to count as siege engines, yet fired quick enough to count as semi automatic weapons. They hurled _blessed_ javelin-sized projectiles into the rakshasa lines, whom so conveniently had placed themselves above them.

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It was a turkey shot. The rakshasa were perfect targets. The repeating ballista didn't even need to aim for a ballistic trajectory since they had clear shots over the heads of their own forces.

Then the lupínals were upon them like wolves amongst cats. The celestial shock troops jumped straight into the fray, further bringing chaos to the besieged demons, and just behind them, almost a hundred thousand equinals, each strong as a giant, and decked in mithril armor from head to toe, rushed in.

"Fall back! Regroup in the city!"

But now the rakshasa had to flee uphill, with the enemy upon them, and the ballistas puking blessed projectiles on anyone who ran ahead alone.

The general checked his clock again.

"Uhmm... it is a pity that grapeshots wouldn't have counted as piercing. Forming up like that, they were just begging for it. Should I have gone ahead with it anyway? The engineers could have used the target practice, at least."

Complete annihilation of the enemy.

The Green Wolf Heads were speechless, as were whatever rakshasa that had been left behind in the city.

"Blow the bagpipes again, signal the troops to reform their ranks, we march into the city."

The battle of Sorventh lasted 5 minutes. It took longer than that to form ranks and take up positions on the field.

Superior tactics, soldiers and technology.

The general troops arrived at the field in mint condition, while the rakshasa had to pick up whatever they could and hurry up to meet them.

It wasn't even a fight.

~O~

Inside the city, it was a slaughter house. The tigermen had feasted on human flesh on a nightly basis. The scent of gore and blood were everywhere and permeated everything from the open plazas, now tinted red, to the very roofs of some houses.

The general unleashed the lupinals unto any hiding rakshasa.

"I don't care if its a house cat. I don't want to see anything that even remotely looks like a rakshasa by tonight's supper time."

"Yes sir! What do we do if they surrender, sir?"

"Drag them to the main square. The cervidals should be done cleaning it and assembling a prisoner's camp there by now."

"Yes sir!"

~O~

Out of the original 32,000 inhabitants of the city, only 11,000 were still alive. The rakshasa had devoured everyone else, starting by the elderly who couldn't be used as breeding stock in the future.

Sorventh had become a land of the young. Every man or woman over 19 years of age had been killed and eaten.

Of course, some children had also been consumed at the tables of the demon's leaders.

To say that the survivors were in a state of shock would be to badly understimate the deep of their trauma.

"Uhmm."

The general had hoped to return control of the city to its rightful authorities, but things were drastically different from what he had expected.

"I can't believe this... this... monstrosity!"

Juno and his party were stunned by the state of the city.

"Ah, sir Juno, I was hoping you and your comrades could offer some aid. My time table has been badly affected by the lack of a surviving government in the city, could I leave you in charge, along with some cervidals and equinals to rebuild and run the city? Only until leaders of their own begin to emerge amongst the survivors, of course."

"Your time table?"

"Yes, my schedule. I did not expect to have to spend too long in the city itself, you see?"

"W-who gives a crap about your schedule! These kids need help!"

"Why, the folk in the other two cities we still need to liberate, of course! I assure you that they would care very much if we were to be delayed."

"...y-you are right. I apologize for my outburst."

"There's no need for you to apologize, you acted as your sense of right demanded, and nobody was hurt. There can be no wrong in such a thing. So, could you become their mayor? Temporarily, at least."

As they spoke, the cervidals were busy at work using _prestidigitation_ to clean the gore and blood. The city was already taking a more civilized aspect. The youngest children were being taken care of by the lanterns and the ursinals, who seemed to be rather popular with them, while the older kids, those able to act rationally, at least, assisted in whatever manner was possible.

"How many people can you spare? Getting the city to run properly again won't be easy."

"I will leave about 50 cervidals and 20 ursinals for engineering and sanitation works, as well as 1,000 equinals to help with reconstruction and fortification of the walls. Once I report to the Exalted Ones, they will almost certainly send extra assistance."

"You've mentioned the Exalted Ones before, who are they?"

"The Exalted Ones are the rulers of Tengoku Junzi, a powerful force for good that has sent us forth to assist in expelling the Rakshasa from the Dragonic Kingdom. They are my creators, and the creators of every member of the [Golden Horde]."

"Your creators?"

"I believe that, by local definition, they would qualify as deities, but they far more merciful and gentle, and a lot less distant than such beings. Perhaps they will come themselves? It is my understanding that they are experienced with children."

At this moment, the lupinal commander excused himself and entered the command tent.

"Sir! We have finished sweeping the city! No Rakshasa attempted to surrender, sir!"

"Fumu... well done, captain, please inform the cervidals that the prisoner's camp will not be necessary, after all. Perhaps they can reuse the materials in a constructive manner."

"Sir, yes sir!"

~O~

"That concludes my report."

General Subutai was still standing after finishing to read his after battle report.

"It Is worse than I'd expected. Should I [Fabricate] a nuke? I should nuke them, shouldn't I?"

Ren was holding her face with both hands. No, she was covering her face with both hands as she spoke.

"Please retort me!"

She begged to her sister, but Mako was in shock. This beautiful fantasy world had just gotten all too grim and horrifying all of a sudden.

"No nukes, alright? ~fa"

Lyann sighed as she started talking. She had heard stories from the Wild Riders so she wasn't caught completely by surprise by the general's report.

"General Subutai, you have done a splendid job, and fulfilled my every expectation. As your creator, I am very proud of you right now. ~fa"

"T-thank you, Golden Ballade-sama!"

"Lyann, please. ~fa"

"Yes, Lyann-sama"

"General, from this moment forth, I want you to rescind the benefots of the Geneva Convention towards the rakshasa. You are no longer obliged to declare war on them, or to offer them a chance to surrender. This is no longer just a liberation effort. This is now a crusade, do you understand? ~sol"

"Yes, Lyann-sama."

"Anyone disagrees? ~sol"

"What happened to the children?"

Mako's wings were trembling, but her voice was cold and calm. Colder than any of the NPCs had ever heard It before.

"Uhmm... according to what info we were able to gather, children under the age of 7 were also eaten, Mako-sama. They were deemed too young to make the trip to the rakshasa farms, so-"

"Kill them."

"..."

" .Them."

Mako's mana was flaring up, her mood was beginning to affect her auras, and she was starting to tremble due to rage.

"Send the [Silver Pride] as well. I want them dead. By tomorrow. I want every single one of them dead!"

"Mako-sama, the [Silver Pride] is a defensive force, we need them to watch over Tengoku Junzi... besides, there's a chance the people of the Dragonic Kingdom would react poorly to the sight of general Li's troops. We don't want to scare them any further."

Burlaug left out 'I need them to protect you' from his speech.

"Fine. But send out the four kings, at least."

"But, they're responsible for the [Rainbow Gate]..."

"Either they go, or I go."

"...which isn't really necessary right now with General Li's fine troops defending the city and no enemy players attempting a raid. The Four Kings, yes, Mako-sama."

"Uhmm... we should send supplies and help. Ren, can you go and see what supplies they need? ~fa"

"You know I can't use [Alter Self] the way you do."

"I'm sure there must be a ring with it that you could use if need be. Or you could just make one if you wanted to. You are level 100, you know? I know the outside world is scary, but the children need you. ~fa"

"Alright. But why not Mako? She wanted to go."

"She wanted to go fight, not to help rebuild. You can rebuild the entire city in a day if you want to, right? ~fa"

"Understood. I'm going after this meeting is over, then. Should I report on the terrace farming? It seems so unimportant right now."

Ren looked at the report she had put together. It was resting on the table before her. It was in color and was full of pretty graphics and a side cut of the mountain detailing water sourves, irrigation channels and such. It felt so embarrasing, somehow.

"Please do. I think we need to calm down a little, anyway. ~fa"

~O~

"What d'ya mean, they are gone? Did they took the people with them?"

Queen Draudillon was looking down at the ministers from her throne.

Her petite figure was that of a cute prepubescent girl. She spoke with a sweet, childlish tone that fit her perfectly.

"No, your majesty. Apparently, a neighboring kingdom sent a liberation army and reclaimed the city from the tigermen."

"Reinforcements, really!? T-thats super great! Who is it? The empire? Did the theocracy finally send the Sunlight Scripture to help us!?"

"Ah... no, their emissary claims that their nation is called Tengoku Junzi, a secret kingdom located in what we believed was a uninhabited region of the Dragonback mountain range..."

"You're frakking kidding me, right? What makes you think I'm in the mood for jokes right now?"

For a moment, her voice was that of a very bitter adult, surprising almost all of the ministers and nobles.

"I am not playing a joke on your majesty. The emissary says that the kingdom of Tengoku Junzi had been a secret, isolationist, self sufficient kingdom until now, but that their geographical proximity to your lands, and this strangely aggressive push by the tigermen, whom they refer to as Rakshasa, has finally prompted them into action."

"I see, I see. So they were worried that, if we fall, they're next. Something like that?"

The queen was showing a surprisingly fluent and smart opinion, but her voice and tone was back to that of a child.

"It seems so, your majesty."

"Okies! Then they wanna be friends, right? That's super good! Show the emissary in, then!"

"Ah, your highness should know, first..."

"Yes? What is it?"

"Our bishops are quite confused about them, as are our sages."

"Uhm? Well, I understand. A entire secret kingdom. It must have been embarrasing for the sages, but its okies, I forgive them!"

"Well, yes, but... the thing is..."

"Yes?"

"They're not human."

"Uh? Ah, they're a mountain kingdom... and secret... I see, I see! So they're dwarves? I can imagine the entrance to a secret dwarven kingdom hidden deep within the mountains. That name sounded dwarven from the start."

Most of the ministers agreed and nodded, whispering about how that certainly sounded possible.

"Well, you see, if they were dwarves, the bishops representing the Six Gods wouldn't be as excited about the emissary as they are right now..."

"Now ye're just being a meanie! What about them, then? What about them!?"

"The bishops referenced some ...very old ...holy books. I brought one for you and added a page marker for your convenience."

The minister gestured an aide, and a young man approached carrying a rather large, obviously ancient book.

"If you could please check the page illustrations..."

~O~

"Oooh, you're an angel, then?"

"Yes, your majesty, albeit a very humble one."

"I see, I see. This book says you're a _lantern_ ar-chun."

"That is correct, your highness. I am an lantern archon. My name is Jubileus. The Exalted Ones have sent me to you as a envoy of good will."

"I see, I see."

Jubileus was a small, floating orb of light. Strangely soothing characters flowed over his surface like silver over gold. His light was gentle and warm, about as potent as that or a torch, so while it was a little hard to, it was not impossible to look straight at him, specially in a well-lit room such as this.

"So, the exalted ones are your rulers. Kings? Who rules over the angels? Gods?"

"Yes, the Exalted Ones rule over our kin in Tengoku Junzi. They who are merciful and kind have stated that they are not divine. Like your majesty, they are of mixed blood, wuth a human base."

"You can tell?"

"It is public knowledge, your majesty."

"Ah, right, right. So, they have dragon blood as well? That's kind of exciting!"

"I'm afraid not, your highness. Their blood hails from angels greater than myself."

"...okies. So, what can chu do?"

"I can glow."

"Yes, you glow very nicely. What else can chu do?"

"I can teleport, fly, glow, speak and sense the presence of evil."

"Oh! How does that work?"

"When someone's heart favors the dark, they appear as if glowing red to my eyes. I do not have eyes, it is a figure of speech."

"Oh! Oh! That sounds amazing! Do we have anyone like that?"

"Uhmm... that man over there, the one with the large feather on his hat."

"The marquis?"

The rest of the court moved away from the man.

"Is that his name? He glows red to my eyes."

"Anyone else?"

"No. Most people are neutral. A few are genuinely good. It takes a truly despicable set of deeds to truly turn a heart towards active, unfettered evil."

The space around the marquis grew even larger. People began moving to the opposite side of the room.

"I see... so, how can chu help us?"

"I've come to offer help in any way you want, your highness."

"Can chu send troops?"

"The Exalted Ones already sent the [Golden Horde] after the rakshasa."

"Can chu send more?"

"Mako-sama wanted to send more, but Burlaug-sama said that the second army should remain to protect Tengoku Junzi. General Subutai-sama leads the [Golden Horde]. According to him, he will recapture the remaining cities within the week."

There was a lot of whispers amongst the gathered officers.

"Once he's liberated your captive cities and created a safe zone behind him, his troops will trap the rakshasa army between himself and your capital. He wants to meet with your generals to discuss how to proceed from that point forwards."

"Y-you are not joking, right? Your general plans to liberate two more cities within a week?"

"That is correct, your highness. He says that the rakshasa have only left a nominal force defending them."

"I see... why does he want to meet my generals? Why not me?"

"There are two reasons. First, it is the Exalted One's policy that rulers should not play generals, and generals should not play kings. Military matters should be left to military men. The second is... well, the general is a very powerful combatant. It would be impolite to expect your highness to endanger yourself by being in his presence."

Some of the officers and generals whispered their approval, albeit the nobles seemed bothered by such ideas.

"...alright. When can we send our own ambassador?"

"I am sorry, but I have no such information."

"Then, can we personally visit your realm?"

"I am sorry, but I have no such information."

"Is there anything else you can tell us, then?"

"Yes. Ren-sama one of the Exalted Ones, wishes to visit in person. You can discuss about details with her at that time. For this, she has two conditions and three gifts."

"Oh ho? What are the conditions?"

"First, you must remove all evil-hearted personel from the audience chamber for this meeting. For that purpose, she hopes you can make use of this Jubileus in order to identify such individuals in an expeditious manner."

The queen signaled the guards, then pointed towards the marquis and had him removed from the room. The marquis howled and screamed as he was dragged away.

Noone cared. He had no friends.

"Second, she hopes it will please your majesty to allow her an escort of a dozen lanterns such as myself, to act as her personal guards. If such numbers are too numerous, then she says she will settle for two swords."

"Two swords?"

"Sword archons, your majesty. I am a lantern archon. A sword archon is a type of archon."

"Ah! Give me a minute..."

The queen browsed the book until she found the sword archons on it...

"I think I'd prefer to have you and your kin around."

"Yes, understood. Then please allow me to present the gifts."

"A-alright, what is it?"

"The first is a new type of weapon. Ren-sama sent a dozen of them, which she hopes will assist you in the defense of your realm. If it pleases you, your guards can unpack and show you a model of one."

"A weapon?"

"Yes, the rakshasa are very resilient to damage, but extremely vulnerable to blessed piercing weapons, such as bolts or arrows."

"Oh ho? that information alone is quite useful."

"...it is not common knowledge? How have you fought them for so long without finding out?"

"Very poorly, it would seem."

The queen answered while looking at her generals, who looked away.

"And, what is the second gift?"

"Ren-sama sent you a ornated mask. It should be in a case inside the model weapon box..."

One of the guards assembling the model weapon picked the case and approached.

"Oh, it is a beautiful mask."

It was an elegant mask like those of a venecian carnival. It had a golden sun over the left eye, with a white lacquered surface and colorful feathers on the sides.

"It is a magical mask, your highness. Its secret if for your ears only... is it alright if I approach?"

"I..."

She looked at the minister, who didn't seem to have any idea what to do.

In the end, she decided that accepting would be in tune with her character as a young and innocent girl, so she accepted.

"It lets you see through all illusions, your highness. The rakshasa of old were able to use spells to appear as men. Ren-sama thought that perhaps some were still able to do so, and hoped you would be able to use this to get rid of any such spy in your court."

"Oh! Oh! How do I use it?"

"Simply place it over your eyes and wish for it to work. It only works for a few minutes every day, albeit you do not need to use them all at once."

"In that case... ah, good, there's none here."

"That is good to know."

~O~

Later that night, queen Draudillon was talking with her most trusted minister.

"So what do you think?"

She asked him plainly.

"It sounds too good to be true, but that ballista weapon is the real deal. With it, our generals say that the capital at least will not fall. If only we could have had them a year or so ago, we would be looking at an altogether different picture right now."

"And the mask?"

"The cour wizard says that it is a priceless item. As in, literally more valuable than the palace."

"How can it be that we didn't know about this country right next to ours?"

"I apologize, but I genuinely had no idea."

"So, I have to meet with a godblood tomorrow morning?"

"You are a dragonblood, why are you so worried?"

"I don't have dragon guards floating about, do I? Get me some booze."

"You really shouldn't drink tonight, your majesty. You do not want to be less than perfect tomorrow."

"Ugh... fine, fine! I assume you at least posted a request for information on that Tengoquila Yonose place at the Adventurer's Guild!?"

"Tengoku Junzi. And of course, your majesty."

"Alright. Can I have at least one glass?"

"Of course."

"Thanks."

~O~

This sure was a long chapter. Next time on _Yet Another Overlord Fanfic:_

Chapter 4! Undead King Under the Mountain

Some links of interest:

You can find all the old Dungeons & Dragons guardinals and other creatures here .

How to have fun making walls impossible to climb by turning them into slickstone /spells/underdark-34/stone-metamorphosis-3518/


	5. Chapter 4 Undead King Under the Mountain

Chapter 4

Undead King Under the Mountain

It looked like a riot, but the crowd outside of E-Rantel's Adventurers Guild was just trying to push and shove each other out of the way so they could peek inside through the crowded windows and door.

The adventurers currently inside the adventurer's guild lobby were the reason for the crowd, two of which had only recently arrived into town.

One was an elegant looking beauty with glasses, a metallic choker, and a low-cropped bun at the back of her head.

Wearing a short-sleeved red shirt stretching down to cover her slightly past the beginning of her thighs, a pair of soft-looking, form fitting pants of a unknown fabric and cut, her outfit was completed with a set of high heel boots and leather gauntlets matching her light leather armor.

A person from earth would look at her and see a beautiful girl in a sports shirt and workout pants.

Her light armor was made of leather, and obviously designed and tailored for her with mobility in mind. It was pock marked with numerous marks of battle use that had been carefully repaired, and looked quite dependable and of evidently high quality.

No matter how one looked at her, her atmosphere was that of a serious and cool beauty.

Even though her boots had high heels, they were more akin to steel-toed work shoes or even military footwear than elegant female footwear.

True, she stand and walks on the balls of her feet, but her boots have a thick one piece rubber sole, and look extremely trustworthy, with high quality layers of soft and resilient leather bolted or sewn together, and a short plate of metal running down their front, secured into place with thick leather straps.

Rather than shoes, in the end, they were obvious weapons meant for kicking and breaking her foes.

Similarly, her sturdy, metal-reinforced gauntlets looked quite elegant at first glance, but any adventurer would quickly notice that they were high class weapons.

Indeed, whenever she made a fist, the gauntlet's plates and spikes naturally locked into place to turn her hands into a morning star, with solid spikes atop metal plates. The gauntlet's then became weapons that could be used to break bones and tear flesh, with a protective plate on top of soft leather as forearm protectors.

The final result was that anyone could tell she was the agility-based, close quarters type in combat, and because the other female members of her group kept referring to her as "big sister" in public, the adventurers of E-Rantel had already christened her as the "Beautiful Onee-sama" of the Darkness team.

The nickname seemed to bother her slightly, as she kept asking people to call her as either Yuri-san or miss Alpha, depending on the situation, but her beauty, professional attitude, and occasional act of charity around town, quickly cemented the nickname into the minds of those around her.

The second new member of the group was a petite but no less beautiful girl. Her short height, the eyepatch over her left eye, milky white skin and red-gold, straight long hair, made her seem so delicate as to be out of place in an adventuring party.

Her always calm and polite demeanor, mixed with her delicate appearance, made her into a surrogate daughter for every adventurer, and when it became known that she would never reject a sweet treat or a cute gift, that impression was carved in stone.

While her "big sister" is dressed quite lightly, this girl is wearing much longer, more utilitarian-looking clothes with leather knee and elbow reinforcements, and an odd-looking cloak with patches of black and various shades of green and brown color splashed unto it.

Looking at her, the first thing a normal person would think is "cute". An adventurer on the other hand, would think "sniper," mostly because of the two crossbows she carries. A larger-than-usual model on her back, and a odd-looking one at her hips, both of which had an odd, unknown design.

Indeed, while the heavy crossbow wasn't particularly unusual, noone in town had seen an 'assault crossbow' before, which could quickly be made ready to use again after each shot, thanks to a cartridge and bolt mechanism.

Of the group now scanning the mission boards, she was the smallest and cutest, and the way her friends keep referring to her as "Shizu-chan", had already made it into her official nickname as far as the town's folk was concerned.

The last female of the group was a figure the onlookers were already well acquainted with, but not at all tired of looking at. The 'Beautiful Princess' Nabel, with her snow-white skin and sensual black hair in a pony tail, had always been an eye catcher in E-Rantel, but now that she was moving along with two other high class beauties... well, the crowd outside was actually on the smallish side today.

Finally, their leader, a tall hero in black armor, seemed to give up after looking at the flyers for a while, and head over to the desk to ask for an assignment, only to finally give up and lead the group back outside.

~O~

Shortly after 'Dark Hero Momon' agreed to act as seneschal and enforcer for the Sorcerer King on E-Rantel, the young Shizu Delta and elegant Yuri Alpha had 'arrived from his homeland' to help take care of him on his new place of residence.

Of course, seeing Momon constantly cared for by such beauties, the idea of him being foreign royalty was now solidly ingrained as part of his legend.

Everyone remembered Nabel's tongue slips of the past, often calling him "Momon-sama", which would almost always lead to the hero gently chiding her and reminding her to refer to him simply as Momon, or Momon-san if she felt the need for it.

Over time, however, it seemed he had finally given up on it, and when the new arrivals also did the same, and happily admitting that they had come specifically to take care of hin, that image was now engraved in stone.

Still admiring the young w omen's beauty, however, there was none who felt such treatment undeserved. Momon was simply such an existence.

Already a dark hero of legend, now that his noble birth had all but been confirmed, people had begun to wonder just how high his rank was back on the land of his birth. This was only made worse by the rumor that he had arrived in E-Rantel chasing after two incredibly dangerous vampires that had already destroyed a city.

"No, no, he's clearly the last king of a small realm destroyed by the vampires."

"You are wrong. Shizu-chan and miss Yuri were only recently sent to help miss Nabel take care of him, right? So the kingdom must still exist. I think the vampires destroyed one or more cities and he's a prince or duke in search of vengeance."

"What if he's the duke formerly in charge of such a city?"

Such rumors were commonplace all over town.

~O~

After arriving at the hotel, Momon removed his helmet and made a show if spending some time with his companions in the hotel's lounge. Shizy quickly asked for her favorite sweet drink, while the rest of the group seemed to be just relaxing and talking amiably.

After a while, Momon announced that he was retiring to his room, and Yuri quietly stood up after him and followed him upstairs after bidding her friends good night.

~O~

It was a bright spring morning, and the hooves of heavy horses could be heard.

Clop clop clop clop!

A elegant, large carriage is moving uphill towards the huge iron doors at the top of the mountain road.

Clop clop clop clop!

It was so luxurious and lavishly decorated, it left no doubt as to the status of its passengers. Doubtlessly, the carriage of a king.

Clop clop clop clop!

The driver was a very pretty, young dark elf boy, holding the reins while smiling and standing on the driver's seat, cheerfully spurring the great iron horses to go faster all the time.

While he was certainly pretty, it was the kind of beauty that is more along the realm of cuteness than sensuality. Even so, anyone meeting her would agree – he will definitively grow into a handsome youth.

Clop clop clop clop!

Behind the large carriage, exactly 100 Nazarick Old Guarders were running tirelessly. By nature, they had no problem keeping pace with the speeding carriage, even while fully covered with a shining breastplate and holding a heavy kite shield in one hand and a broadsword in the other.

Even the extra weight of their great composite bows and fully loaded quivers was not a problem for them.

In rows of four, twenty five lines of such warriors were running at full speed behind the black carriage.

Clop clop clop clop!

And at the end of the group, a second carriage, just as large and just as luxurious as the first, closed the procession. This one is steered by a lizardman wearing a specially tailored armor suit. His scales are glistening black, causing a stark contrast with his golden plate.

There's a wine red cloak swaying behind him, and poking from under it, the handles of two weapons, one that had long been considered a treasure for his people, and one that was a improved version of it, given to him by his god.

Clop clop clop clop!

The reason Ainz took Zaryusu Shasha along with him, was because the lizardman had experience with the dwarves from his days as a wanderer, and could act as a guide and. to some degree, adviser.

The first carriage arrived at the great metal doors, where a large iron golem stood at either side of the road together with a small group of dwarven warriors. The carriage slowed down and stopped practically in a single moment when the elf boy pulled the horse's reins, their heavy freezing under them, skidding less than a inch before coming to a full stop.

"Woooh!"

Aura Bella Fiora cried out as she stood up and leaned backwards at the edge of her seat, deftly avoiding to fly forth when the carriage she was riding on stopped practically on a dime.

Behind her carriage, the Nazarick Old Guarders stopped at once.

It would make sense for the ones in the back to clash against the ones at the front, but this did not happen. They all simply stopped at the same time with no trouble.

If it wasn't for the thin cloud of dust that floated around them for a few moments, it would have been hard to tell that they had ever moved.

Behind them, the second carriage stopped in a more gradual manner.

~O~

To be honest, the reason Ainz had Yuri and CZ2128 join up with Narberal in E-Rantel, was because he wasn't comfortable leaving her in charge while he went to visit the dwarves.

Now that Sebas was back in the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick and, Ainz hoped, enjoying his rest time with Tsuare, he could leave the iron butler in charge and call for Yuri to come out to the front lines, so to speak.

The reason he also wanted CZ2128 to come along was simply to have the battle maid gain some experience at interacting with humans, and to have her do so under Yuri's supervision seemed like the best time for it.

When he introduced them to the guild master as his new party members a few days after their arrival, the man had given him a wry smile and quietly agreed to give them mithril status based on his word about their competence.

Honestly, the rumors about their arrival had quickly spread all over town, so it wasn't a surprise when the request came along. Even if Momon said something about being too busy helping with the governance of the city to make it unto the field for every mission, the new additions quickly proved themselves to be more than proficient at their job, and nobody doubted they would soon be raised to orichalcum, and eventually adamantite rank.

~O~

Once the carriage stopped outside the metal gates, Aura easily hopped down from it to the ground and hurried over to its window, as if to ask for instructions.

Then, she headed towards the dwarves, and casually told them to open the gates.

"This is the carriage of Ainz Ooal Gown-sama, ruler of the Sorcerer's Kingdom of Nazarick. We properly announced our visit ahead of time, so open the gates already!"

The dwarven soldiers looked at each other, and finally nodded. One of them lifted a small horn to his lips, and blew a long note of it. Almost immediately, the doors began to open outwards, revealing a long, tall and wide ascending tunnel into the mountain. It lead to a portcullis, which was already rising, and behind it, another metal gate.

"Thanks!"

Aura ran back to the carriage, climbed into place and made it move again.

The procession resumed at a more moderate pace. The carriage moved into the mountain, and as it began approaching the middle portcullis, the far away doors began to swing open.

The hallway itself was built so smoothly that the seams between stones were hardly visible to the naked eye.

There were countless arrow slits at either side of the road, and ,assive rocks, weighting several tons hung from solid chains high above. It was truly a set up that would make any invaders regreat that they had managed it that far inside.

As the inner doors swung open, the carriage made its way into an ample yard surrounded by strong walls, with several stone towers evenly distributed amongst their lenght, and large ballistas on top of each.

A soldier asked them to line up inside the garden while a guide arrived from the palace to show them about town.

Aura steered the carriage towards the left side of the large yard, the Nazarick Old Guarders lined up in next to it in 25 rows 4 warriors deep, and the carriage driven by Zaryusu parked at the right side of the yard.

Inside the first carriage, Ainz and Fluder were waiting. Fluder wasn't surprised by the comfort of the carriage, since his former protegee had a similar one, but there was one thing which genuinely interested him.

"It is thanks to Shijuuten Suzaku's love for culture. He is also the one that added most of the books to the Great Library at Nazarick."

What Fluder was fascinated with, was the 'music player' which Ainz had revealed after opening a hidden panel, and used to set ambient music inside the carriage. Hidden speakers around the cabin gave the impression of being submerged right in the middle of an orchestra, with individual instruments sounding from clearly different directions.

Fluder himself wasn't particularly fond of music, but the combination of magic and unknown instruments did indeed fascinated him.

"He was a sage?"

"I suppose you could say so. He was a university professor, and the one who said "it is too sad to have a library full of nothing but utilitarian books". Then he began adding the classics, as he called them. A few other members imitated him, and that's why there is a large variety of books now. He also added this music player to the carriages in Nazarick, and to every private room."

"That is quite amazing. How does this 'music player' operates? What instruments are those?"

"You find it interesting, Fluder?"

"Yes, quite! Shijuuten Suzaku-sama must have been a noticeable individual!"

"You think so? Yes, yes, I do agree with you, of course!"

Ainz was quite in the good mood after hearing his friend praised so. Of course, Fluder, being as intelligent as he was, already noticed this trait on his master, but he was genuinely impressed and interested on the device.

"Well, the 'music player' uh? It operates using magic, of course, but it is a machine rather than a spell. Well, I remember him saying often that one of his favorite authors once said "Any advanced enough technology is indistinguishable from magic."

"That is indeed a noble idea. Do you think I could find a schematic on this device?"

"Uhmm... I wonder? He's the one that said it would be a shame to have a library full of nothing but manuals, after all. Perhaps if you moved to his room... I am sure he would approve of such."

~O~

About 10 minutes later, a dwarf dressed in fine garb approached the waiting group.

"Hey, how dare you make Ainz-sama wait for so long!?"

Aura was standing by the carriage door. She jogged over to the dwarf, and demanded an explanation.

"My apologies, but there was quite a bit of details that still needed to be taken care of. Should I ride with you and show you to the palace we have prepared for the sorcerer king?"

"A palace, hm? I guess I'll forgive you, then!"

Aura hopped back into the driver's seat and waited for the dwarf to climb next to her. Of course, the vertically challenged dwarf had some difficulty doing so, but he was soon sitting next to her nonetheless.

"We have prepared a celebration for tomorrow night in honor of our guest. Please let us know if anyone in your group will need outfits or anything else."

"Alright."

With that, the group began moving again, making their way out of the yard and into the city itself.

The streets were wide and paved with stones. Most buildings were of solid materials, but they were not made from rock, and the majority had colorful paint on them.

Ainz watched the streets quietly, looking at the dwarven folk going about their business, dressed in what he recognized as rather well tailored western outfits...

It took him a while for it to click, but despite being underground, the streets were clearly lit. The cops uniforms were blue, and more importantly, the store signs were in japanese!

The sight was somehow so mundane that he actually needed a few moments to notice. The public lights, the clean and orderly streets, the store signs... there were even a couple of suspicious metallic rails sunk into the street stones...

His hopes were provem right when an old fashioned but brand new trolleybus rolled by, bright red and shining new! Even if it looked like an antique to him, it was obviously of recent making, and the sight of the dwarves holding from handrails inside it filled him with nostalgia!

'Yes! There has to be a player here!'

He could hardly wait until tonight. No, he simply could not wait until tonight!

When the carriage stopped, he was about to jump out without waiting for Aura to open the door for him, when his undead body forcefully calmed him down.

From the second carriage, about a dozen of pretty homunculus maids came out and hurried to line up at either side of Ain'z carriage door.

Aura opened the door for him, and the dwarven guards and servants were taken back when a figure representing death itself stepped down and set foot before them.

His cloak and robe fluttered with a unseen breeze, and a bright red fire burnt in his empty eye sockets. For the dwarves, it was a sight full of awe and fear.

The guide that led them to the empty palace was already waiting by the entrance. Strangely, he had a completely different reaction. Rather than fear and awe, his face was lit up with a expression quite similar to hope.

"Welcome to the Dwarven Kingdom, Ainz Ooal Gown. I have eagerly awaited your visit. I must say, your appearance is truly intimidating now. A completely different feel from how it was in Yggdrassil."

He spoke while bowing just slightly, still smiling at the vision of death before him.

"..."

Ainz was speechless for a moment, then he noticed that the dwarf's lips matched his words, and his body had to forcefully calm him down three times in a row before he was capable of moving again.

He had finally found a fellow player.

~O~

Aura, Fluder, Zaryusu and the maids were completely speechless to see the dwarf greet their lord in such an informal manner, and even more so when Ainz simply walked forth and placed a hand on the dwarf's shoulders, then nodded.

Even while doing so, however, his other hand was inside his robes, holding to a defensive World Item , ready to call upon its powers at any time. After such a long time fearing the presence of another player, to finally meet one had triggered all his inner alarms once he calmed down.

A few minutes later however, Ainz and his host were enjoying a private conversation in one of the studios within the palace.

"...I see. It certainly sounds convenient, but you aren't the first to arrive together with his entire guild building and NPCs, after all."

"Is that so? Who else?"

"People of this world refer to them as the Eight Greed Kings."

"I've heard of them, but just briefly..."

"Those morons tried to conquer the world, could you believe it? What, are they 8 years old or something? It ended thanks to their infighting while an alliance sieged their country. Now I don't even know if they are alive or not."

"Ah, I sent a group to look for players at likely spots. I guess I should hear about that place in a couple of weeks."

"I bet it was convenient to show up with an army and a fortress, uh? I was all alone, and the Theocracy is harsh on anything that's not human. That wasn't a nice experience... you know, some random NPCs, and a few mid level field bosses were wandering around at the time, too."

"How long ago was that?"

"A little over 200 years ago. There was a bunch of... wait, want me to list the known players, instead? I think it would be more productive that way."

"Thank you, that would probably be for the best."

"Do you want something to eat while I talk? Do you even eat anymore?"

"No, I do not."

"Ugh, that must be awful... ah, want me to keep calling you Ainz Ooal Gown? That's just your guild name."

"I took it hoping other players would hear about it and approach..."

"Why would I approach a known PK guild? You should have gone with something only we would get, like Nobunaga or Hiroito or something like that."

"You may be right, but I wanted to honor my missing friends."

"I see. Well, you are a dream builder, right? Weren't you worried about min maxers and powergamers?"

"Quite, but I think I'm as prepared as possible. So, could you start your story now?"

"Alright. So, the oldest players I know of are the six gods of the theocracy. My guess is that they were in a party when whatever happened, happened."

"You mean, because there were six of them."

"Right. They were probably level 100, too, but I don't know what happened to them. Well, if they were all humans, I guess they just aged and died? Is not as if I'm going to cry about it. Most human-only groups could be downright assholes. Just look at what they guys did. They pretended to be gods, and to top it all off, they built a entire religious state around worshipping them and oppressing other races. You can tell right away that they were some proper cunts."

"I had my suspicions about the theocracy, yes. Their 'Six Gods' sound just like the type that caused Touch Me-san to start Nine's Own Goal to begin with."

"Well, I guess they did at least one good thing. Humans would have already gone extinct without them. After them, let see... the Eight Greed Kings showed up and pretty much wiped out civilization trying to conquer the world."

"You mentioned them before."

"Yes, but now they're in context. Let's see... after them, some mid-level field monsters were wandering about and just attacking anything that moved. That's when the thirteen heroes came about and took them down. We were a lot more than thirteen, mind you, but the theocracy only recognized the human ones. Anyway, only a few of us were players and none of us was higher than level 60 at the time."

"About the Eight Greed Kings, I find it hard to believe that a group of players and their guild house would lose to this world's forces."

"It was more than just the humans. It was pretty much everyone, and there's doubtlessly been players arriving in other regions I don't know about, so there's some surprisingly high level stuff going around. If you have a child, there's a chance it will inherit some of your strenght, too."

"I see, I was right to be careful, then. As of late I was beginning to think I was just paranoid. Anyway, the trolleybus brought up my salaryman nostalgia. How did you make that?"

"Ah, electric trains were a hobby of mine. My class job did a lot of the work, but my hobby skills were surprisingly useful. Half a century ago we made an hydroelectric plant using a underground waterfall. We could sell electricity to the kingdom or the empire, but it would be a major pain to explain how it works and all that."

"Well, now that I have E-Rantel, we're neighbors. I'd like to be able to flip a switch and have light at night."

"Hmm... is this the sorcerer king, Momonga, or Satoru Suzuki speaking?"

"Yes? And should I talk to the Dwarven King, Magic_Crafter, or to Yama Kobito?"

They chuckles a bit.

"Fair enough. If I tell you to expect a electricity bill, you're unlikely to stand up and shout 'what, you have to pay it every month!?' right?"

The dwarf faked indignation as he played the reaction.

It was a good thing that Ainz body calmed him down, or he would have just burst out laughing. Still, it may have been nice. Instead, he sighed and chuckled again.

"Ah, I wonder if it would be better to use magic light for public streets...?"

Ainz wondered aloud, and the dwarf king shook his head.

"It depends, really. In my opinion, magic is too convenient."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, necessity is the mother of inventive, you know? If people can just say a few magic words and solve a problem, they'll have zero motivation for progress. Just look at how backwards the rest of the world is. They're stuck at that level of tech and can't escape it. This is just my opinion, but the less problems you solve with magic, the better."

They continued talking until late at night, when King Yama had to excuse himself.

"Unlike you, I still need to sleep. Come to the main palace tomorrow night for the ball, and after that we can stay up talking again."

"Right. I was beginning to forget that people need to sleep. There's lots of stuff I still want to talk about, so I'll see you tomorrow."

Ainz nodded, and caught himself going back to his old mannerisms, as he was escorting the dwarven king to the door.

~O~

'Well, that certainly saved me a lot of time' – Ainz was thinking about his conversation with Yama Kobito, or king Yama of the dwarves.

He had come hoping to learn as much as possible about the causes for the dark age this world is in, and he had learnt, albeit in a very abridged manner, about the last half millenia of the region's history.

Still, Magic_Crafter had no idea of what actually happened to the six gods. He simply assumed that since they were playing human characters, they died of old age as humans do. It also helped Ainz realize that he had been right to be wary.

There were, and are, players out there. Yama seemed more interested in running his kingdom than in fighting him, but the Eight Greed Kings were a group of powerful players who had also arrived on this world along with their guild house, and even tried to conquer the world.

He was really looking forward to the report from Albedo and Pandroa's Actor about their flying castle.

He would have to be just as careful from now on, but...

Talking to someone as an equal had helped to stir his half forgotten human self. Electricity, a primitive subway, japanese street signs. It all tickled at the memories of his previous life.

Perhaps, talking to an equal was something he needed.

He had been surrounded by nothing but worshipers and yes men since his arrival after all, so it was bound to affect him somehow, and there were many more things he wanted to talk about with the dwarven king, but there would be time for that after tomorrow's ball.

In the immediate future, he should teleport back to E-Rantel and revert into his Momon persona.

~O~

It was the shortcoming of the [Teleport] spell that it could only be used between places the caster was familiar with.

Well, now that he had taken residence in the dwarven city, he could easily go back and forth between it and his private room in E-Rantel.

"Ainz-sama, welcome back."

Yuri Alpha was waiting for him. She bowed at 45° and waited for permission to lift her head.

"Thank you, Yuri, but call me Momon when I'm disguised as such."

He signaled her to raise, and changed his appearance back into that of Momon, Dark Hero of E-Rantel.

"Of course, Momon-sama!"

"Were you waiting here all this time?"

He had left for the dwarven kingdom two days ago by carriage. At the time, he asked her to make sure the room remained safe for him to teleport back into while he was gone, but...

'People will whisper about seeing us go into my room together, then spending two whole days locked inside.' - he couldn't help but to be somewhat worried over her reputation.

He spoke gently. Really, what would Yamaiko-san say if she heard about it?

"I apologize if this causes you any troubles."

"There is no such thing!"

She replied instantly.

"But, some weird rumors have already begun to circulate..."

"For such rumors are nothing but an honor for this lowly Yuri Alpha! No, rather, I worry about Momon-sama's reputation instead!"

Ainz looked at her. Between her, Narberal and CZ treating him with such open respect, the rumors about them being dutiful servants who wait on him hand and foot, rather than his comrades, had pretty much been set in stone already.

The rumors seemed to actually help his cover and further cement his legend amongst adventurers and townsfolk alike, but to have such rumors circulating about him and the NPCs he saw as his friends daughters still troubled him.

"No, no, the way men think, to have such a beauty as yourself be Momon's lover would only make him seem even greater, you know? Now, has anything important happened while I was gone?"

~O~

Yuri handed to him a copy of the reports from Albedo, Cocytus and Demiurge, stating that they were all routine matters and there was nothing urgent that he needed to give his immediate attention to.

"I see, in that case, I will head to the Magician's Guild in the morning, and speak to its guild master. I will have him examine one of the Nazarick Old Guarders magic weapons, as I am interested in how well they compare to the 'average' magic weapons of this region."

"Yes, please allow me to accompany you, Momon-sama."

He nodded to her request, and sent her to rest until morning. After all, she had just spent two days waiting for him in place.

While she was gone and in the waiting time until morning, he read the reports from Albedo, Cocytus and Demiurge, then left his hotel room in the morning.

Of course, Yuri, CZ and Narberal were already waiting outside and naturally took positions a few steps behind him.

Under his helmet, Ainz felt like letting out a sigh.

~O~

Dwarf King Yama was going over his conversation with Ainz. Indeed, as a level 100 player, it was well within his power to wipe out several dozens of thousands of low level conscripts with a single Over Magic spell, but what Yama was interested in was the dozen or so World Items that Ainz Ooal Gown (the guild) was rumored to have.

'It would be nice if I could convince him to part with one. He hasn't been in this world for too long, perhaps I can trade a decade of free electricity for one of them? As a modern person, he has to consider electricity as a more valuable good than a 'game item' right? I can say that I am worried about the Theocracy using one against me or my kingdom, and it would be true.'

Truth be told, the Theocracy's Black Scripture was like a Damocles' Sword over the dwarven kingdom. They demanded a huge annual tribute, as well as a steady supply of magical items and other goods.

He had managed to at least secure some minimal rights for the dwarves in the surrounding kingdoms, but his merchants still had to deal with extraordinarily high taxes and countless fees that noone else had to pay.

Since Ainz Ooal Gown was founded specifically to fight against the abuses of human players towards other races, he was sure that Momonga... no, he was sure that Ainz would side with him the next time the Theocracy announced new taxes and other such one-sided rewriting of their international treaties.

~O~

Theo Lachesil, master of the Magician's Guild of E-Rantel, was a thin man with a short, carefully trimmed beard, who normally wore a dignified wizard's robes.

Right now, he was having a brief rest and going over the scroll of a new spell developed in the empire, when one of the clerks came into his office and announced that the city seneschal, Momon, had come to visit him.

"Oh, send him in, of course."

"Yes, sir."

Theo stored the scroll in the scroll rack by his desk, then checked his robe and smoothed out any wrinkles, real or imaginary, as he prepared to meet the city's hero.

A few moments later, the 'Beautiful Onee-sama' of Darkness, the sole Orichalcum adventuring team of E-Rantel, opened the door, and both 'Beautiful Princess' and 'Shizu-chan' stepped in, nodding politely towards the guildmaster and bowing as Momon made his way into the room.

"Yuri, I've told you before that I am more than capable of opening doors myself."

"I am sorry, Momon-sama, but we wouldn't be able to rest easy knowing that we gave less than perfect service to your highness."

'Is she purposefully playing out for the rumors about Momon being royalty, I wonder? but in that case, I should make a token effort of correcting her, shouldn't I?'

He thought so for a moment before replying.

"I've told you all plenty of times. I am not 'your highness' anymore. Please do not use such title again. And I would also appreciate it if you referred to me as Momon, omitting any further honorifics, Yuri."

"Ah... this one will do her best, but that last part is simply impossible, Momon-sama."

Ainz made a visible gesture of lifting his hand to his face for a few moments, then turned towards the guildmaster.

"Lachesil-dono, it is a pleasure, thanks for meeting me on such short notice."

"No, no, Momon-dono, it is an honor to have you drop by."

Yuri, Nabel and Shizu nodded, without moving from the spots they were standing at.

"Ah, if I could abuse of your good will, could you perhaps forget all about what my _colleague_ and I said just a few moments ago...?"

"You said something? I must be getting old, my ears are not as they were, you see."

"Thank you very much."

Lachesil gestured for Momon to enter and have a seat before his desk, then walked and sat across from him while Yuri closed the door and stood a respectful distance away.

"Yuri, Nabel, Shizu, please do sit down. You aren't required to stand at attention, you know?"

"Old habit."

"Yes, Momon-sama."

"Please excuse me..."

The beauties sat down on a nearby couch.

Again, Momon made a show of dropping his shoulders and looking at the guildmaster with a pleasing expression.

The guildmaster was looking at some vague point outside the window...

"So, how can I help you, Momon-dono?"

"-san would be enough, Lachesil-dono."

"As the beautiful miss Yuri would say, I'm afraid that would be impossible."

The guildmaster waved his hand and shook his head from side to side.

"Well, then let us proceed. I was hoping you could study this and tell me about it."

Momon produced one of the weapons the Nazarick Old Guarders normally spawn with.

"This is...?"

"As long as I am acting alone, there truly are no conspirators I could arrest or report, are there? As long as I am acting alone."

"I... I understand. Please allow me to identify this unknown weapon whose origins I am completely ignorant of for you, then!"

"Thank you. Still, so far I'd have to say, the rule of our sorcerer king has proven itself to be a noticeably beneficent one, but it doesn't hurts to be prepared."

"Yes, I would have to agree. That young elf girl has done a great deal of work for the city, crime is practically non existent... I was convinced that undead being the enemies of all life was a fact, but now I have my doubts about exceptionally smart ones."

"Fumu... I wonder if there is perhaps more than meets the eye about our Sorcerer King? That necromancer I fought in the graveyard... he was from Zuranon, wasn't he? He claimed attempting to become undead himself. Would a man turned undead have the same tendencies and way of thinking as a naturally spawning undead?"

"You suggest that perhaps, the Sorcerer King...?"

"That's exactly all it is right now. Merely a suggestion."

"Intriguing. I guess it could be possible? Ah, let me analyze the weapon for you, but, why not have your companion, miss Nabe, do it for you?"

"Nabe is excellent when it comes to blowing things up, but not so much on information gathering."

"I understand. Then, please wait a moment."

~O~

From what the magician's guild master said, Ainz could understand that the Low Class magical weapon the typical Nazarick Old Guarder is spawned with is ranked as a well crafted magic weapon on this world, albeit not a particularly uncommon one.

It could be sold for a considerable value, but Ainz was at least aware that doing so regularly as a source of income would end up affecting their market value. Plus, it wasn't really wise to arm one's own potential enemies, regardless of how much they were willing to pay.

If their value as determined by the treasure room's shredder [Exchange Box], exceeded the cost of spawning a Nazarick Old Guarder even by a single copper coin, then he would have effectively found a cheat towards infinite money. It was certainly something wort checking.

~O~

Albedo was staring at the ruins. Her group had finally arrived at the deserted city under Eryuentiu, the Eight Greed Kings floating castle. In every direction, nothing but sand met the eye, yet on the other side of the ruins, she could see a column of smoke rising towards the sky.

It was the first time anyone in her group had seen the base of another guild, but looking at th castle, she wasn't particularly impressed. Yes, it would make a nice gift for her beloved Momonga, but it was just a castle, while the Great Tomb of Nazarick was miles wide, and could easily accommodate many such structures in pretty much any of its floors.

The only thing that seemed particularly interesting, was the group of NPCs standing on the ramparts of the castle, looking down at her.

~O~

Author's Notes: You know, this is the first time I try writing a fic, but I have been a D&D DM for over 20 years now... it's okay if you don't know what that means (other than me being a gigantic nerd), but, the important bit is, I am used to people choosing the way they want the adventure/story to go.

Anyway, I apologize for this chapter taking so long, but I decided to check it myself and read it once a day over at least three days. My eyes and brain tends to get used to the way things are writen after looking at it for a few hours, so reading it once per day over several days showed a lot of stuff could still be improved upon. I believe this is a much better way of doing things, so I will probably begin posting a new chapter every 2 weeks instead of once every few days as I had been going.


	6. Chapter 5 - Peace In Our Time

Chapter 5

Peace In Our Time

 _"And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not."_

 _—_ _John 1:5,_ _The Bible_

It was a goddess' divine decree that signaled the end of the rakshasa nation.

"Kill them all."

General Subutai couldn't forget the expression of pain in the Exalted One's face as she spoke such words. It tore at his soul to see his gods suffer. It hurt him in ways which words failed to describe.

His gods were suffering because of the demons whose corpses he was now walking amongst.

'Doctor Orders-sama was not meant to say such words.'

After liberating the last rakshasa-controlled city, the general was walking amongst the dead demons, supervising the burning of their bodies and the disposal of the ashes. Of course, his dead soldier's bodies had already sublimated, and promptly resurrected, thanks to the virtually bottomless funds of Tengoku Junzi.

Neither himself nor any of his soldiers needed fear death.

He left the field and walked into the city. By now, the troops had grown used to helping the survivors.

Those with only minor wounds and surviving family members would be sent to Sorventh, the first city liberated from the rakshasa, in hopes that they would be able to start a new life there.

Those who wished to fight, would be sent to Daurgothoth, the kingdom's capital.

The last group was made up by those who would be sent to Tengoku Junzi, in accordance to the _Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security_ signed a few days ago by Celi Malefactor-sama and queen Draudillon of the Dragonic Kingdom.

Anyone too young and without surviving family would be adopted by the city inhabitants. The ones who were too injured or too affected by the hell they had just been rescued from, would be taken to the healing houses, where they would be given care and time to heal before they were given the choice of remaining there, or being taken anywhere they chose to.

Already, the ursinal guardinals were creating semi-permanent portals to allow for the quick movement of survivors, supplies and troops between any of those places.

Unfortunately, resurrection magic consumed some of the target's levels, so normal people could not be successfully resurrected. High tier resurrection magic could get around that problem, but the only one able to do such a thing was Doctor Orders-sama herself, and only a few times a day.

Attempting to resurrect almost two hundred thousand people would be simply ridiculous.

~O~

 _A few days earlier..._

 _"_ _How will Celi Malefactor denka arrive into the city?" [1]_

 _Minister Andromacus asked of Jubileus, currently the ambassador for Tengoku Junzi. The queen was having evening tea outside in the royal gardens together with her most trusted minister and the lantern archon, as well as some guards who stood a respectful distance in the back._

 _"_ _There are several ways, but since Tengoku Junzi was an isolationist kingdom until recenly, the Exalted Ones have never interacted with other kingdoms in an official manner, and they hope you can designate the best way about it."_

 _The glowing orb of light 'spoke' somehow, hovering over the tea and cookies without touching them._

 _"_ _Uh... can you eat?"_

 _The queen asked of the ambassador, seeing as he had no mouth, yet was able to communicate._

 _"_ _No, I have no need for it. But I enjoy the scent of the tea. Thank you very much, Draudillon-sama."_

 _The minister waited for a few moments, then proceeded with his queries._

 _"_ _You can teleport, correct? Can the Exalted One that's about to visit arrive in the same manner?"_

 _"_ _Yes, it is possible. Celi Malefactor-sama could teleport to us now if you feel it is appropriate. She could also use a [Gate] spell to create a portal and walk through it, or ride a carriage through a [Gate] and enter the city normally. She is willing to oblige whatever you feel is best."_

 _"_ _Ah! I-is that so? C-could her troops do the same?"_

 _The queen asked, somewhat nervously._

 _"_ _Not all troops have the ability to teleport, but they can all walk through a [Gate] of course."_

 _"_ _I-i see... well, I think we need to prepare a proper welcome first. She will require her own palace wing, unless she wishes to teleport or use a [Gate] to go back and forth between our realms every day."_

 _The lantern went quiet for a little under a minute._

 _"_ _Celi Malefactor-sama says that whatever is more comfortable for your highness will be acceptable."_

 _"_ _I see... alright, in that case..."_

~O~

 _The moral in Daurgothoth had already risen when the rumors of reinforcements spread through the city, and even more so when the first golden [Gate] opened in the city's main square, and through it arrived the volunteers from the cities recently liberated by the [Golden Horde]._

 _They told stories about invincible armies fighting under unknown flags of silver and gold, cutting down the tigermen as if they were wheat before a scythe. About the kindness and strenght of its general, and about how it was imminent for this invincible army to arrive soon to help defend the city._

 _After the new ballistas were installed on the walls and properly tested, morale rose a little higher._

 _Finally, it was announced that the Dragonic Kingdom was now allied with Tengoku Junzi, the origin of both the ballistas and the reinforcing army, and what was more, that one of its leaders would be arriving that very night to assist to an audience in the royal palace, where terms for a permanent alliance would be discussed._

 _Perhaps understandably, as soon as it was revealed that the 'Exalted One', for such was her title in her own country, would arrive at sunset through a [Gate] in the main square, similar to that through which the survivors had arrived the day before, pretty much every single citizen was there, even if they had to sit on the surrounding roofs._

 _It was so crowded that the city guards had to push them back to make room for the [Gate] to appear._

 _"_ _If an invading army comes out of that [Gate] the losses will be devastating, your highness."_

 _"_ _You think I don't know that!? ...what do you expect me to do?"_

 _The queen kicked the minister on the shin as hard as she could with her small, are feet, then continued on her way to the balcony to watch the plaza, holding the edge of her short dress with both hands, feeling her heart racing as if it was trying to run out of her mouth._

 _For a few moments, there was another sun in the sky, then it bloomed open into a golden [Gate] ober the plaza. A dozen lanterns came out in twos and threes, fluttering around like butterflies, and headed down to the plaza. They lined up and began moving in a slowly expanding circle, gently pushing the crowd back._

 _"_ _Please make room."_

 _"_ _The Exalted One is coming."_

 _"_ _Please step back a little bit."_

 _Their voices were like chime bells as they asked the crowd to step back. Once there was a wide enough space in the plaza, they flew upwards and waited._

 _A few glowing silver feathers fell in through the open [Gate]. They floated down slowly, whirling and spinning slowly. It looked quite natural, but a cunning observer would have pointed out that there's no way they could fall like that outdoors. There as a light breeze flowing across the plaza, yet the feathers seemed to ignore it._

 _To be honest, it was a simple low level illusion to rise the excitement of the crowd._

 _Shortly after, a feminine figure fell through the [Gate]. Albeit thanks to a [Feather Fall] spell, it was a slow and graceful descent towards the ground, falling surrounded by dazzling silver feathers that seemed to match her widely spread angel wings._

 _She is wearing a soft, blue and gold leather blindfold, with a small jacket of matching colors and materials, over an elegant, soft white dress that showed off her cleavage and hugged her figure down to the beginning of her thighs._

 _It was a slightly prudish set, considering the ubiquitous 'shrinking tendencies' of fashion for female characters that began almost with the birth of videogames and continued all the way to the year 2138, but she had personally crafted most of her gear, so it was largely designed to her tastes._

 _She wears neither gloves nor boots, but her arms and legs are covered with numerous strips of white papyrus, each full of holy writings._

 _There is a thin, elegant ring in several of her delicate fingers and toes._

 _Even though Yggdrassil had a cash shop to give pay-to-win players quick and powerful advantages, it was nonetheless well balanced if you were able and willing to do the grind. Otherwise, the business model would have never been sustainable, as widely demonstrated hundreds of times by games that depended too heavily on their cash shops, promptly alienating free and casual players._

 _For example, the cost of any of her skill-enhancing bracelets in the cash shop would be:_

 _[Skill Bonus^2] x 1000 Cash Shop Credits_

 _Since they gave her a +100 to a single skill each, their actual cost would be:_

 _[100^2] x 1000 Credits, which is to say 10.000.000 Credits, or 20.000.000 thaks to a special quality which made it slotless._

 _In other words, they did not count towards the number of magic items she was wearing, and that doubled the item cost._

 _This is why she was able to wear so many bracelets right now, their appearance modified to appear as holy scriptures hanging from her arms and legs._

 _Crafting materials were worth ½ as much as the cash shop price in gold coins, and the crafter would have to pay 1/25_ _th_ _of that same cash shop cost in experience points. So, the total cost of crafting each of those bracelets rather than buying them at the cash shop, was 5.000.000 gold coins and 800.000 experience points._

 _It wasn't actually impossible to do, only highly unlikely._

 _The materials themselves were easily gathered. It was just a matter of good old grinding._

 _The Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown was a good example. Its guild members had to sacrifice hundreds of hours to gather the materials for it, but they did it. The exp component however, was what sent most serious users straight into the cash shop._

 _But Sancta Sanctorum possesses the [Throne of Joy], which grants their guild leader nearly unlimited experience. True, it was considered a bit of a joke item by the game staff when they submitted the plan for it. After all, what's the point on having an item that can grant infinite experience to a character that is already 100lvl?_

 _However, much like with Touch_Me from Ainz Ooal Gown, once the company staff realized their mistake, it was already too late. Touch_Me had broken the game in ways so horrible and disgusting that the game company had to make it impossible for anyone to ever again imitate his character build._

 _However, they neither erased nor punished Touch_Me. Yggdrassil promised a world with complete freedom, and punishing players for being smart and using that freedom would go against that promise._

 _The [Throne of Joy] was a similar history of successful, disgusting min-maxing and power gaming._

 _Truly, an item which can grant unlimited experience only to a guild leader who is already max level? It was the very definition of useless, something that a 'Dream Builder' [2] would make just for character background and story reasons, but consider the following:_

 _The one thing truly keeping in-game crafting weaker than cash shop items was the exp cost._

 _Guilds can change their leader if they want to._

 _There was now nothing preventing Sancta Sanctorum from spamming item crafting until Divine class items literally spilled out of their treasure rooms._

 _So what if they had zero World Items? [3]_

 _They're not a PvP guild, anyway._

 _Most 100lvl players were considerate fortunate to possess a single Divine item. Ainz Ooal Gown was so prestigious and powerful that its core members owned more than one each, and even some of their NPCs had been given one by their creators._

 _Celi Malefactor, however, was fully covered in them, literally from tip to toe. This was the true power of the [Throne of Joy]._

 _You can't use it to attack, you can't use it to defend? It's still a broken, OP, min-maxing work of art._

 _What's that? The normal item limit for the head is one item alone? Not if they're slotless items!_

 _By their very definition, slotless items use [No Item Slot]. She was wearing six pairs of magical bracelets on each arm and leg, and plenty of rings to go with them._

 _Cash shop users typically bought extra slots, mostly for rings. In Sancta Sanctorum, they just made all their items, slotless._

 _~O~_

 _The reason Ren was now fully covered in slotless Divine Items, was because of the possibility of a rakshasa attacking suddenly from the crowd. There was also a chance that another player had made the jump, but there would be little that could be done about it if she was attacked with a World Item._

 _Just in case, she and Lyann had both left a bit of hair with Mako, since some bodily remains were all that was needed for [True resurrection], a 10_ _th_ _level spell, to raise someone from the dead._

 _Unfortunately, none of them were able to use the [Clone] spell to grow themselves spare bodies in Tengoku Junzi, which meant that Mako was their lifeline._

 _That, as well, was the reason they couldn't let her go out. Either Ren or Lyann could be resurrected by Mako, but neither Lyann or Ren could resurrect Mako, if she was completely annihilated with a World Item._

 _~O~_

 _"_ _Celi Malefactor-sama is here!"_

 _"_ _Welcome, welcome!"_

 _"_ _The Exalted One is here!"_

 _The crystal clear voices of the lanterns were as happy as those of children greeting their mother. They flew to and around her, surrounding her like butterflies dancing around a flower._

 _As soon as she landed, she adressed the crowd._

 _"_ _On behalf of Tengoku Junzi, we are glad to be here. Kindly, take us to your queen."_

 _The crowd parted quickly and naturally all the way to the palace._

 _One of the guards gathered enough courage to approach, and politely begged the visitor to follow him._

 _~O~_

 _"_ _Hey, hey!" -the queen demanded of the minister_

 _"_ _Y-yes, your majesty?"_

 _"_ _How come she can look all soft and curvy, but I have to look like this?"_

 _"_ _You know the reason, your highness."_

 _"_ _It is such a dirty reason!" -the queen sighed._

 _As the [Gate] closed, she left the balcony and rushed to the throne room._

 _~O~_

 _"_ _It is such a shame that in this world, languages are automatically translated for the listerner's benefit."_

 _The half angel said with a slightly depressed expression as she drank her tea. Even so, anyone would agree that it was a most lovely expression._

 _"_ _What do you mean, this world?"_

 _Queen Draudillon froze mid-gesture. It looked quite lovely, since she was right in the middle of leaning forth and taking a nibble from the strawberry cake on the table._

 _Honestly, she had wore her mask of innocent cuteness for so long, that it was practically a part of her personality now._

 _"_ _Ah, I am sorry. Is that not part of your mythology?"_

 _Her counterpart, one of the 'Exalted Ones,' as the rulers of Tengoku Junzi were referred to, didn't seem particularly affected. She placed a finger in the middle of her forehead and seemed to think about something for a few moments._

 _Since she was wearing her [Blindfold of Truth], Ren knew the real form of queen Draudillo. She was able to see it floating a few feet above the queen's head, but she was too polite to point it out or ask about it. Still, the cute and young form before her tickled at her inner teacher, so she assumed a dignified air and tried to explain it as best as possible._

 _"_ _Universe. All space and time, matter, and energy, including this solar system, all stars and galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space, regarded as a whole."_

 _She looked at the queen, then tried to rephrase it._

 _"_ _Ah, space is... if I place my hands before me, with a space between them..."_

 _"_ _I understand space."_

 _The queen frowned softly, and pouted. Ren couldn't help but think it was quite charming._

 _"_ _Time? Do you understand time?"_

 _"_ _Yes, of course."_

 _"_ _Which part did you have a problem with?"_

 _"_ _What is a galaxy?"_

 _"_ _Alright. This table has teacups, cake, tea... imagine that they were many many stars. A galaxy is a group of many millions of stars. At night, you can see small but bright spiral shapes in the sky, right? Those are galaxies. Far, far away groups of stars. We are inside a galaxy, and the stars we can clearly see are those that are inside the same galaxy as us. It's like being in a forest. You can easily see the trees, but far away groups of trees, other forests, can only be seen as clots of green in the distance, right?"_

 _"_ _Got it."_

 _Draudillon nodded a couple of times._

 _"_ _The universe is what you get when you take all the galaxies together at the same time. A galaxy is a group of millions of stars. Some stars, like our sun, have planets. In some planets, there is life. That would be us."_

 _"_ _That makes us seem very small."_

 _The queen sighed, trying to wrap her head around it._

 _"_ _That's because we are. But it also means that we are all the same, in relative terms. Isn't that nice? What does the universe care if a person is a king or a peasant? Aren't such things really meaningless?"_

 _"_ _You said something about this world. Did you meant you were from somewhere else?"_

 _"_ _There are many worlds, I thought you that was heavily implied by my explanation."_

 _"_ _That... but, all religions say that our world is the center of creation, special and created just for us!"_

 _"_ _Most religions do, in every world, say the same. Not all, but most."_

 _"_ _I can't let the priests hear about this."_

 _The queen placed her hands at either side of her head, looking distressed._

 _"_ _Ah... priests can be a troublesome bunch."_

 _"_ _Somehow, hearing you say that its really troublesome."_

 _To hear an angel look down on religion, it would trouble anyone, after all._

 _"_ _Well, isn't it enough to believe in the divine? Do you need the specific religion of your specific region in your specific world, around your specific star, inside your specific galaxy, within your specific universe, to the be the one and uniquely right religion? That reeks of selfishness and recklessness to me."_

 _"_ _A-alright... so, why is it a shame?"_

 _"_ _Well, it means that you would have a hard time getting along with your neighbors if they had a different religion. Imagine how hard it would be to get along with people from another world, let alone another galaxy."_

 _"_ _That does sound bad, but I meant the language bit."_

 _"_ _Well, some languages are quite beautiful, you know? To begin with, it is a shame you will never be able to hear french, english, celestial, or japenese. I have been using the [Words of Creation] this whole time, and you haven't even blinked."_

 _"_ _What's that?"_

 _"_ _The language the used to create the universe. It is the first and original language. Comparing it to any other is like comparing the sun against a candle. It has no words for evil concepts, yet it has thousands of ways to say 'kind,' you see?."_

 _"_ _I-is that so?"_

 _"_ _And have you noticed how the cake is exceptionally tasty? The grass around us has grown, and the flowers are blooming, though it is not spring. This is all thanks to the [Words of Creation]."_

 _Ren smiled and leant forth over the table, gently wiping the queen's nose clean of pastry cream with a handkerchief._

 _The translation effect meant Ren herself would never hear the [Words of Creation]. After the transmigration event that brought her guild to this world, one of the first things she did was try to speak the [Words of Creation] that her character was meant to know, but her disappointment after hearing regular japanese come out of her lips was truly first class._

 _Her lip movements did not match her words, so she knew she was using a language other than japanese, but it was all she could hear._

 _The angels in Tengoku Junzi spoke celestial, but all she could hear was japanese.[4]_

 _Truly a shame, no matter how one looked at it._

 _The queen cleared her throat to try and regain some dignity. It was a tough balancing act to seem like a cute child yet a proper queen._

 _"_ _'bout your earlier question. Our kingdom's main exports are foodstuff that can't grow further north, and the furniture and instruments made with our local woods."_

 _"_ _Ah, that sounds rather nice. Is this table made of those woods?"_

 _"_ _N-no, this is just mammoth tusk."_

 _'They have mammoths? They have ivory, but they don't think much of it. Is this what you'd call a cultural difference?'_

 _Ren was left pondering about it. She knew that Ivory was ab extremely valuable material back on earth, but maybe it was rather common here?_

 _"_ _Anyway, going back to our conversation. In exchange for our help, we ask for the city of Sorventh and half of the rakshasa territories once the war is over."_

 _"_ _It would make a bridge between your city and your new territories, right?" -the queen pointed out_

 _"_ _Yes. That is correct. It would be awkward to have to cross your territories whenever we went from the capital to the new regions, after all."_

 _"_ _Yes, but it's still a region of our kingdom... I appreciate your assiatance, we all do, but a sovereign shouldn't just give away land like that..."_

 _"_ _You can't see it as a trade for all the new land you will win?"_

 _"_ _Those were mostly our old territories, which the beastmen conquered in the past."_

 _"_ _I see... would you see the region to us?"_

 _Draudillon thought about it. In reality, the Dragonix Kingdom was facing a huge economical crisis right now. When the tigermen took the southernmost regions of the country, the realm lost its gold and silver mines, and so they were now completely reliant on what little they could export in order to keep up with expenditure._

 _Lets come up with an arbitrary number and say that they earned 100 through exports. They still had to pay 40 as military budget, 40 as tithe to the theocracy, 30 for upkeep and repairs of existing infraestructure, 30 for various minor expenses... frankly, the state's treasury was almost depleted, and it got to the point where the queen had to start selling her personal territories just to gather enough money and pay for last year's budget._

 _In other words, the country was already bankrupt. The queen was holding it together out of sheer tenaticy and stubborness. Even if her new allies delivered on all their promises and the Dragonic kingdom recovered its precious mines, it would be many months before they became operational again, if not years._

 _Surviving the beastmen's onslaught just to scatter to the winds due to bankrupcy... besides, Sorventh had been decoimated and there was no way the kingdom could afford the repairs and aid that it so direly needed._

 _"_ _Alright, then, how about 4 loads of gold and 6 of silver? I can convince the nobles it was worth it for that much."_

 _"_ _How big is a load? Are we talking baskets, wagons? Is it a specific total weight, size?"_

 _Obviously, Ren wanted to know what a local 'load' measured up to. Well, its not as if she would have problems paying whatever amount Draudillon came up with, but as a math teacher, she was very interested in this world's units of measurement._

 _Did they use cms, inches? Probably neither, right? Maybe something more exotic, likc a spear throw to mark a plot of land? The merchant NPCs in Tengoku Junzi needed this knowledge to avoid being scammed by visitors in the future, and it would be generally useful information._

 _~O~_

 _"_ _Oh, they're here, that's great."_

 _Queen Draudillon was quite happy as she looked at the gold and silver-loaded carts as they exited the [Gate] and moved along the plaza towards the palace._

 _A load, which is a international unit normally used between countries, was equivalent to 210 kilos._

 _It wasn't an ideal number, but at least it was easy to convert, so Ren quickly made a copy of the Dragonic Kingdom's weights to take back home with her._

 _Of course, not just a load, which was the heaviest official weight used in transactions, she also made copies of every official weight used in the local markets._

 _The palace guards received the custody of the wagons, and headed towards the treasure._

 _As soon as they arrived, the contents were revealed. Indeed, a full four loads of gold, and six of silver... bullion coins._

 _"_ _What?"_

 _The queen was a bit confused. She had expected ingots or regular gold coins, but what she had before her was neither, and a little bit of both._

 _"_ _Is there a problem?"_

 _Ren was standing nearby, a few steps lower from the throne._

 _"_ _How did you made these?"_

 _Ren was smiling beautifully. Honestly, it was quite the mischievous smile, but since her blindfold hid her eyes, it was impossible to tell._

 _~O~_

 _In order to firmly entrench Tengoku Junzi in the region, Burlaug had suggested to stablish their currency as the region's standard. The default coin which all countries would comprare themselves to, as in its time was the british, north american, european or pan-american currency, back on earth._

 _While every country's gold coins were a mix of gold and other metals, Tengoku Junzi used Yggdrassil gold coins, which thanks to their magical origin, were a impossible 100% gold._

 _Thus, the Yggdrassil gold coin would quickly and naturally become the standard gold bullion coin of the region, to which all other nation's coins would be compared to._

 _By the way, bullion is simply another word for bars or ingots made out of precious metals. A bullion gold coin is a more elaborate version of a mere bullion. It has immediate value and people can easily trade with it._

 _Why is that important? Imagine if a normal person, was paid with an actual gold bullion._

 _That person would need to break it apart and turn it into coins or jewelry before it can actually be of use to him or her, but only a country can mint legal currency, which makes gold bars, or bullions, far less useful to the common man._

 _On the other hand, regular gold coins are not 100% gold. Most governments recognize any coin with over 50% gold content as an actual gold coin, but that makes determining the relative value of different nation's coins into a very complex task._

 _Having a stable and plentiful gold bullion coin in the market would make such process much easier. Rather than comparing every single nation's coins to each other, they only needed to be compared against the 'gold standard,' which would be Tengoku Junzi's gold bullion coin._

 _Back on earth, many countries produced gold bullion coins. The United Kingdom defines them as coins that have been minted after 1800, have a gold content of no less than 900 parts out of a thousandth, and are, or have been, a legal tender in their country of origin (those not meeting the last requirement are not "coins" according to the United States law and must be advertised as 'rounds' instead)._

 _For example, the largest and heaviest north american gold bullion coin is the Golden Eagle, weighting 1oz, and in 2016, it was minted to be equivalent to $50 USD at the time it reached the streets, although its actual valor fluctuated with the demand for gold on the market._

 _Thanks to Lyann taking some local coins back to Tengoku Junzi, it was possible to examine and determine an average 52% to 57% gold content on the coins of the Dragonic Kingdom, Re-Estize kingdom, the Theocracy, and the Empire, which was just barely enough for them to be considered gold coins at all._

 _Furthermore, and this is a well known fact for any coin collector, the coins of any two medioeval countries were rarely the same size and weight._

 _For comparison, an Yggdrassil gold coin weights 35 grams, while a Dragonic Kingdom gold coin weights 37 grams._

 _[Fabricate] was used to craft a small weight of pure gold out of a Dragonic Kingdom coin, and it weighted 19gr. This meant a Dragonic Kingdom coin was 52% gold._

 _Since 19x2=38, it wasn't possible to say something as happy and easy-going as "our coins are worth twice as much as yours."_

 _That's why, Ren and Burlaug decided to mint the 'Fulgo Angelus' gold bullion._

 _With these numbers as a base, they started calculating the weight of the gold bullion until it matched the minimum common denominator weight for the coins of both Tengoku Junzi and the Dragonic Kingdom._

 _Only taking into account their actual gold content, of course._

 _In the end, each Fulgo Angelus gold bullion is slightly bigger than the standard gold bullion back on Earth, with the Sancta Sanctorum guild banner on top, "Fulgo Angelus" over the banner, and "23.457oz FINE GOLD" engraved under it._

 _It should have said 665 grams, but Lyann made a joke about how it was lucky for a country of angels that it was 'one gram short' of a certain number,' and it was quickly changed into ounces._

 _This way, the 'Fulgo Angelus' is worth as much as 19 Tengoku Junzi gold coins, or 35 Dragonic Kingdom gold coins, exactly._

 _Thanks to the imcredibly complex logo on it, which this world's technology wouldn't be able to duplicate, and easily calculable value, it could easily employed for important trade between nations, or even as a mean for other countries to replace the coins in their treasury with easier to count and harder to hide (steal) gold bullions._

 _Ren explained to Queen Draufillon that each bullion (aka ingot) was worth exactly 32 Dragonic Kingdom gold coins, or 19 Tengoku Junzi gold coins, based on the gold content of each coin. With about 10 layers of bullions and 120 bullions per layer, it meant each load had exactly 1200 gold bullions, which equaled enough gold to mint 38.400 new Dragonic Kingdom gold coins._

 _As there are 4 loads of such bullions, that meant the Dragonic Kingdom could send out up to 153.600 gold coins if they so wished._

 _Out of the 6 loads of silver, most would probably be melted and used as an alloy together with the gold, and probably copper as well, to make new coins. The rest would probably be mixed with copped and made into silver coins._

 _It may seem like a large amount, but this was not an individual, it was relative to a entire country, so the amount wasn't enough to cause a depreciation of the local coins._

 _Honestly, if the council of Tengoku Junzi wanted the Dragonic Kingdom to become ruined and dependant on them, all they had to do was to give them enough gold for them to destroy themselves due to inflation._

 _It wouldn't even affect them one bit. All they needed to do was to have Ren [Fabricate] a few thousand gold bullions out of the underground of the Dragonic Kingdom. They wouldn't even need to spend their own gold to begin with._

 _~O~_

 _"_ _Dodge to the left! ~fa"_

 _Lyann cried out from the back as her party fought the two-headed troll in the old mill._

 _In the end, her role had become something like that of a control tower, mostly because her friends really liked it when she was nowhere near a ballista, crossbow, sling, bow, or darts._

 _The night they took on a dart game at the bar had become legend already._

 _Cathya went around the giant and took careful aim while Albion and Grumnir distracted both its head, then shot it right in the spine with the bolts Lyann had enhanced with a temporal acid charm._

 _Trolls were impossibly resilient unless you burnt them with acid or fire. There's a folktale saying how a bear killed and ate a young troll, only to be ripped from inside as the beast healed itself within the bear's stomach._

 _Well, considering the bear's stomach acids, it was probably an exageration, but it was true that with such uncanny regeneration, they had pretty much no natural predators in the wild, and unless slain, could basically live forever._

 _Which was one of the reasons Lyann hoped to find some inhuman players. Trolls, vampires and many other races wouldn't age and die. If Sancta Sanctorum made it to this world, surely others did, as well? From what she head about the Theocracy six gods, it seemed obvious that they matched the criteria._

 _Unfortunately, it seems they had been humans, and showed up half a millenia ago, which made it extremely unlikely they would still be alive today._

 _GRAAAAAH!_

 _The troll's heads both roared as one when the Cathya's bolt hit it in the middle of the spine. It was a wound its supernatural healing abilities couldn't deal with, yet also a testament of the creature's uncanny resilience, since any natural creature should have died with such a wound._

 _'Honestly, this world isn't a game anymore. People and monsters don't have HP bars anymore, so shouldn't someone die right away with a bolt through an eye, or right through the spine? I need to ask Subutai-kun to report back on it if he sees it happen.'_

 _As she was thinking that, she noticed Albion take a hit on the left shoulder. The troll's massive club was more like a small tree, and the sickening sound of crushed bones made her cringe._

 _"_ _[Cure Critical Wounds]! ~fa!"_

 _She used a healing spell through the fate weave, and healed him instantly without needing to get close to the fight._

 _Tazar might have been a little jealous, but the dwarf enjoyed being able to wade into melee so the relief of not having to act as a 'healbot' was quite pleasant to him._

 _'Where did they hear the term 'healbot' from, anyway? Even if the six gods were players, the term should have long ago have been changed into something else. It would take a regular influx of players to keep the term's original wording.'_

 _Lyann was convinced that other Yggdrassil players must have made its way to this world on a regular basis, albeit now that the servers had been shut down, that would probably no longer be the case._

 _Grumnir chopped off the toes of troll's left feet with its fire-enhanced axe, and the creature lost its balance._

 _The precise effect of Lyann's current songs was to give them a fighting prowess equivalent to that of fighters 48 levels above their own, enhance their hp, and bless all their weapons with extra fire damage._

 _Honestly, she wasn't sure if the hp enhancement was working or not, but since everything else seemed to be working just fine, she had to assume it did as well, for now._

 _This meant that the troll was actually far under their effective level._

 _Since Lyann joined them, their levels had increased greatly, and their rank within the guild had raised from platinum to mithril. They were smart enough to realize it was largely thanks to her support, so whenever they teased her about her lack of fighting prowess, it was merely in jest, and always in a good natured manner._

 _"_ _I'd like to acquire some magic scrolls soon. I believe I am ready to move to 3_ _rd_ _level spells now."_

 _Kallisto, the dark elf magician of the group, was standing in a fairly relaxed manner next to Lyann. She had used her [Acid Arrows] spells to eat veritable chunks off the troll's hp, but she knew she was mostly done for the day, other than for shooting bolts from her crossbow from time to time._

 _Lyann sighed. She didn't regret abandoning ranged weapons when she had a chance to show the full range of her abilities, but since she was playing the part of a gifted but clumsy support character, she couldn't simply draw her spear and march into the fray._

 _"_ _You should be read for 4_ _th_ _level spells, I think. I have some scrolls of 3_ _rd_ _and 4_ _th_ _level with me. Do you want to study them tonight? ~fa"_

 _Lyann was very interested in how wizards learnt spells on this world._

 _Back on Yggdrassil, they simply went to a trainer and paud a small fee to be taught the spells when they reached the right level, but apparently they needed to study and properly memorize them in this world._

 _To be honest, she wanted to take Kallista to Tengoku Junzi and see what would happen if she was to deal with the town's magic trainer NPC. Would it work as it did in the game, and simply imbed the knowledge in her mind?_

 _Surely, there must be advantages to actually learning a spell's works from the ground up, rather than simply having the knowledge of how to use it into one's mind._

 _Furthermore, she liked the dark elf girl, and felt like she did back on Yggdrassil when she helped a newbie._

 _"_ _Could I really!? But ut would take a few years to learn a new spell, right? It may not be too long for me, but it means you would need to give me or sell me the scroll."_

 _'It takes years!?'_

 _This was unexpected._

 _"_ _Ladies, we're done here."_

 _Albion interrupted their conversation, and they realized that indeed, the troll had been dead for a while now. The fighters stabbed at it with flaming weapons for a bit, just to make sure, and then cut off its hands to take back as proof to the guild._

 _~O~_

 _"_ _I'd like to bring some guests ~fa"_

 _Her friends in the council stared at her for a bit._

 _"_ _I thought we had agreed to remain mostly isolated?"_

 _"_ _It's an experiment- ~fa"_

 _"_ _How so?"_

 _Mako was interested, she reached for a cookie and waited for Lyann to continue._

 _"_ _As level 100, we can't learn new skills. Not at least like we used to. ~fa"_

 _"_ _Right, so?"_

 _"_ _Well, the locals use [Martial Arts] in place of Yggdrassil [Skills], but they use the same magic system. It just takes them years to learn the spells. It also takes them years to learn martial arts. ~fa"_

 _"_ _Interesting, Golden Ballade-sama, but what does that have to do with your guests?"_

 _Burlaug asked calmly, waiting for the connection between both things._

 _"_ _I want to see if, using our tutor NPCs, they can learn Yggrassil [Skills] and spells. If they can, maybe we can learn their [Martial Arts] ~fa"_

 _"_ _It will also start a flood of adventurers into town."_

 _Mako was somewhat worried. As player characters in a video game, it wouldn't have mattered, but real adventurers were basically murder hobos, wandering around and killing things for loot._

 _"_ _It will make us into a mythical place of learning. ~fa"_

 _"_ _So much for isolationism, then?"_

 _"_ _Our NPC merchants and tutors can't do their jobs if we have no visitors. I think it's been proven already that we are much stronger than the average person on this world, and with general Li's [Silver Pride] warding the city, not to mention the four kings, I believe we will be safe enough. ~fa"_

 _"_ _People will die at some point. Maybe a drunk fight in a tavern, or an argument with a trader NPC..."_

 _Mako was quite worried now._

 _"_ _Real people die. These are not shadows on the cavern wall anymore. Ren, you remember how the tutor NPC screens look like, right? Could you make some plastic sheets with copies of them for me? That way I can teach them to navigate the screems despite them being in japanese. ~fa"_

 _"_ _Wouldn't it be easier to loan them magic spectacles to translate for them?"_

 _"_ _It would be fine for this particular group, but in the future, can we do the same for every adventurer? ~fa"_

 _"_ _Uhmm... I could just craft one and give it to the tutor NPC, then he or she can loan it to people who want to learn new skills and spells."_

 _"_ _Alright, that should work, I think. ~fa"_

 _"_ _Will you be alright showing your real appearance to them, Lyann-sama?"_

 _General Li had a rough idea about how fond of the Wild Riders she had grown._

 _"_ _I don't see why I'd have to? They already believe that I'm a noble's daughter, so the NPCs treating me politely won't be a problem. Mako, can you open a [Gate] for us when needed? ~fa"_

 _"_ _Of course, I will open one to the central plaza, that way they can go straight to the NPCs and visit the market street afterward."_

 _"_ _I hope this ends up well."_

 _"_ _Me too, but I believe we need to trust in people at some point. ~fa"_

 _"_ _Trust, but verify. I assume we can have a couple of Lupinals track them through their visit?"_

 _Ren looked at general Li, and when he nodded, the meeting moved on to other business._

 _~O~_

 _General Subutai's troops had finally arrived at the hills around the capital, boxing in the rakshasa troops between his army and the city. It was almost literally a hammer and anvil scenario, and the rakshasa were about to be hit flat._

 _From atop the city walls, every remaining knight and soldier in the Dragonix Kingdom looked down unto the beastmen. They were all equipped with a crossbow, or forming part of a ballista's crew, ready to shoot blessed bolts at their bestial enemies._

 _When the [Golden Horde] appeared in the distance, its banners and flags shining in the morning sun, the rakshasa realized they were trapped and quickly tried to charge through the visible weak spots in the trap._

 _This was as Subutai had expected. The Art of War teaches you to always leave a visible avenue of escape to your enemy, least they abandon all hope and become inflated with the idea of selling their lives dear._

 _It also meant that the enemy would be predictable, and go where you wanted it to go._

 _That is how, instead of trying to take the city in a rush or taking defensive positions behind their fortifications, the rakshasa ran out like an unruly mob towards a killing ground of Subutai's choosing._

 _"_ _Now!"_

 _Queen Draudillon felt a immense satisfaction as she called for her troops to open fire. These monsters had quite literally devoured her people and country, and now she was finally about to make them pay._

 _The ballista atop the walls and towers opened fire, launching blessed javelins hundreds of feet into the beastmen, pinning them dead into the ground like butterflies in a glass case._

 _The beastmen didn't care. It was obviously every man for himself. They kept running, and that's when the second half of the [Golden Horde] made its debut on the field._

 _True, only half of Subutai's troops could teleport. That is why he had to march with the half into position, but once the rakshasa were out of position and no longer so much an army as a mob, that was when the half that_ _could_ _teleport finally showed up._

 _They had been subtly studying the rakshasa encampment for days now, thanks to scrying spells and tools, so they were familiar enough with the terrain to appear all at the same time, in their proper place._

 _First, there was nothing but empty space there, and then suddenly, right next to the rakshasa, there was an army of tall heavenly warriors wearing enchanted weapons and armor._

 _The guardinals were the wild, free and gentle citizens of heaven's wilderness. They inhabited blessed arborea and gentle elyssium, but these, these were not guardinals, they were archons._

 _According to Yggdrassil myth, the hosts of heaven are made up by millions of guardinals under the orders of a few thousands archons. The guardinals were brave volunteers, daring warriors and well intended brawlers who offer their lives in heaven's Blood War against the demons, devils and daemons of the abbyss._

 _An archon on the other hand, is born a soldier, an officer or a leader. They are the cogs of law and good in the machinery of the universe, created to fight evil, and promote good. They are solemn, professional soldiers who exist for no other purpose than the complete annihilation of evil across the universe._

 _A host of thirty three thousand archons had just materialized next to the fleeing rakshasa army. They were few when compared to the beastmen army, but their levels were at least in the early 50s, and they were equipped and blessed with the very best Tengoku Junzi could field._

 _Even if the rakshasa outnumbered them twenty to one, it was not a problem._

 _~O~_

 _"_ _Here, this is a telescope. You use it like this."_

 _Ren handed a telescope of black wood and golden rings to the queen, so that she could watch the battle._

 _A powerful, glowing solar archon, a level 90+ being of light, was walking amongst the rakshasa like an adult amongst children. His flaming sword separating their heads from their bodies by the dozen with every swing, while his enchanted armor seemed to shrug off their every blow._

 _It moved like light, every step causing him to zoom forth a dozen feet, arriving next to high priority targets, claiming the heads of officers and any other demon who seemed fond of shouting orders. Its wings seemed etheral, almost translucid, while the wake of its sword left nothing but dead demons behind._

 _In absolute silence, the archons had given themselves to holy war. It was what they were created for, it was their joy and their reason to be. Chasing and killing demons like this, their joy was indescribable._

 _Even the humble lanterns were fighting. High over everyone's heads, they kept shooting beams of light down unto the fleeing demons._

 _In a field with solars, planetars, sword and devas, they were merely a sideshow that noone had the time to worry about._

 _As planned, both halves of the [Golden Horde] closed around the rakshasa's massive army. The rakshasa had stopped trying to fless at last, but their numbers were greatly decimated._

 _No longer an army of over a million, now they outnumbered their foes by a mere 3 to 1, bad odds for level 30 monsters against level 50+ warriors._

 _'It is done, Mako-sama. We have them surrounded.'_

 _Subutai reported back through [Message], and promptly, a new golden [Gate] opened near his position._

 _~O~_

 _"_ _More reinforcements? Is there any need for them now?"_

 _Queen Draudillon noticed the [Gate] and pointed the telescope towards it just as Doctor's Orders made her way through it._

 _Wearing her full set, Mako was wearing a delicate, figure-hugging dress of silver and white with delicate golden lines floating around them. The dress exposed the top of her chest and her shoulders, but a delicate and tall white choker covered her neck and gave her a very stately look._

 _As she arrived, the general bowed and all nearby archons and guardinals knelt._

 _"_ _Please raise. You have done an excellent job."_

 _Under her feet, small flowers grew and bloomed, while the grass grew tall and strong. It was a side effect of her many auras of growth and protection, nurturing all beings, with three notable exceptions, these being undead, constructs such as golems, and demons._

 _From her place on the wall, queen Draudillon could see a dwarf and two more 'solars' follow behind the new arrival. She couldn't help but to turn and look at Ren, since both winged women looked so alike._

 _"_ _That's my sister and the ruler of Tengoku Junzi. She decided on the fate of the rakshasa, so she came in person to finish them off herself."_

 _"_ _Is that so? What is she going to do?"_

 _"_ _She's already started."_

 _Indeed, Mako had begun to cast. An orb of visible magic power formed around her, glowing with runes of arcane and mysthical meaning. The theocracy priests were stunned already due to the heavenly army before them, but as Mako began casting, they could feel a pull on their hearts._

 _"_ _Super tier magic. She's going to send them all to hell."_

 _"_ _What?!"_

 _It took ten minutes to finish casting the spell. Honestly, it was more than enough time for Mako to think about it._

 _She had been worried about what would happen once she began to cast. Would she regret it? Was this a truly deserved end for the rakshasa?_

 _However, she found herself calmly looking at the demons in the distance. It was no less than they deserved, and many would argue it was much more than they deserved. The spell would literally send them to hell._

 _Even if they had been born and raised in this world, it was not their rightful place. They were creatures of pure evil, originating from one of the infinite layers of the abbyss. All she was going to do was send them home, all at the same time, leaving not a trace behind._

 _The rakshasa were trembling. Mako's chanting filled the air, and she was using the [Words of Creation] to empower the spell. Even in their diminished state, they pulled at the heart of good, and caused evil to tremble in fear._

 _Still, they had nowhere to run to. The archons and guardinals had surrounded them, but did not attack unless they tried to push through their lines and escape. So long as they stood still, it looked as if they would be safe._

 _Seeing them tremble in fear, she couldn't help but to use a cash shop hourglass to speed up the spell's casting time and quickly send them home._

 _"_ _[Super Tier Magic – Damnation]!"_

 _As the spell activated, a massive red and black symbol appeared under the gathered Rakshasa army. There was a glow, and a scream as terrible as if the air itself was crying. No, as if the world was crying._

 _A massive, one way [Gate] to hell had opened for a moment, and every single rakshasa had fallen through it before it closed. There was no time to blink, and many of those present on the field completely missed what happened._

 _One moment, the rakshasa army was on the field. The next, they were gone._

 _"_ _Magnificent, Mako-sama. Did you gain any experience from it?"_

 _Burlaug asked calmly, and Mako checked her character screen._

 _"_ _No, but they were too low-level to give me any experience to begin with. Maybe if I had worn a [Bracelet of Memories] some of it could have been stored away, or perhaps its because I sent them away rather than killing them, but... well, I guess this was necessary to prove that we really are at the peak of our potential already."_

 _"_ _It is as you say, Mako-sama. Now, if we could go back, I am afraid there are plenty of matters I need your opinion about."_

 _"_ _Yes, let's return."_

 _Burlaug finally allowed himself to breathe with relief. He was strongly against letting Mako take to the field, but in the end, he simply had to be content with her showing after the rakshasa had been secured, and keeping two solars as her bodyguards, both of level 95._

 _~O~_

 _It was a slow process, but such was inevitable. The [Golden Horde] chased down every single last rakshasa in the region, always giving them a chance to surrender before inevitably being forced to slay them._

 _Once their presence had been expelled from the Dragonic Kingdom, the [Golden Horde] intruded into their country, and quickly gathered any remaining demons for Mako to send to hell._

 _It was as merciful a end as they could hope for. They would not be killed, imprisoned, enslaved, or punished. They were simply sent where they belonged, and no innocent would have to suffer at their hands again._

 _~O~_

 _Next – Demiurge, grand priest of Death?_

 _Author's Notes: I had a hard time not placing this at the beginning of this chapter._

 _"_ _If you have to look along the shaft of an arrow from the wrong end, if a man has you entirely at his mercy, then hope like hell that man is an evil man. Because the evil like power, power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to know you're going to die. So they'll talk. They'll gloat. They'll watch you squirm. They'll put off the moment of murder like another man will put off a good cigar. So hope like hell your captor is an evil man. A good man will kill you with hardly a word."_

 _–_ _Men at Arms,_ _Terry Pratchett_

 **[1]** _ **D**_ _ **enka**_ (殿下 **?** ) is used for non-sovereign royalty, similar to "Highness". For example, _Kako Naishinnō Denka_ (佳子内親王殿下 **)** , "Her Imperial Highness, Princess Kako of Akishino"), and _Suwēden Ōkoku, Vikutoria Ōtaishi Denka_ (スウェーデン王国ヴィクトリア王太子殿下 **?** , "Her Royal Highness, Crown Princess Victoria of the Kingdom of Sweden"). _Denka_ can be used by itself, equivalent to "Your Highness."

[2] I'm going to quote from the Blue-ray 4 Special 'Overlord Prologue' now. In other words, these are the author's words, not mine, understood?

[Start Quote]

" _The data crystals you want are for the weapon of your dream build, right?" -said Touch_Me to Momonga_

 _A dream build._

 _Creating a second character was forbidden in the DMMORPG Yggdrasil. As a result, in order to make the most out of their one avatar, most players would carefully develop their characters through trial and error. The aim of most players was either power, or to fully develop the abilities of a non-combat profession such as cook, alchemist, or the like._

 _But separate from them, there were people for whom their final build didn't mean being the strongest._

 _'Dream Builder.'_

 _This was the title given to those people who proudly declared their romantic streak, who eschewed the pursuit of power and sought to role-play._

 _For example, in order to make a barbarian who sang in battle, they would not gain levels in the vanguard classes which most suited barbarians, but instead leveled up in classes like Draconic Shaman or Bard, which was considered a waste._

 _By the way, most people shunned dream builders._

 _In Yggdrasil, the maximum size of a raid was five parties of six people each, or 30 people in total. Apart from exceptional cases like guild battles or fighting a World-Class enemy, people who were over the limit would be subjected to friendly fire. In other words, they had to take on bosses with just these 30 people. If there were weak characters among them, it would reduce the raid's overall fighting power._

 _Because of that, it was popular for most dream builders to form guilds with others who felt the same way as them._

 _Then, what about Momonga?_

 _The clan he was in was not filled with dream builders, but at the same time, they were big-hearted enough to accept them._

[End Quote]

This prequel special speaks of the time before Ainz Ooal Gown was a guild. Back when it was just a clan named Nine's Own Goal.

[3] The author of Overlord is somewhat irregular regarding World Items, and it feels as if they are whatever he wants them to be, or he honestly forgets. At times, it has been said that they are they are powerful items with one-time-only super strong powers and that using those powers cause the item to be destroyed, or disappear and randomly re-appear somewhere in the world, yet other times it looks like they merely have very long cooldowns. I'm going with the 'one use only' version since it makes them seem more special and colorful.

[4] I know that Victim is meant to speak gibblerish because he speaks in celestial, but it seems that, again, the author forgot that everyone is meant to hear all languages in their own native tongue. Im choosing to interpret it as Victim gibblerish being the reader not sharing on the benefit.


	7. Chapter 6 - Castle in the Sky

Chapter 6

"There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice."[1]

– Charles de Monesquieu

"Kukukukuku... kuhuhu... bwahahaha!"

Demiurge put down the book he was reading, unable to hold back his laughter anymore.

"Demiurge-sama, is something wrong?"

The pretty homunculus maid looked at him with curiosity. Demiurge was always smiling cheerfully, and was genuinely happy to work for their master's benefit, but the maid had never seen him happy enough to laugh out loud.

"Indeed... hehehe... aaah..."

He needed a few moments to fully regain his composure.

"Indeed! Quite alright, thank you."

The polite and suave devil assured the maid, and stood up, straightening his suit before he walked out of the room.

"Thank you, the meal was splendid."

He left the book open where he had been reading, so the maid naturally approached it to mark the page with a handkerchief before closing the book and placing it back on the shelf.

It was at then, that her eye caught the passage Demiurge had been reading when his humor so drastically improved.

" _A lawful evil villain methodically takes what he wants within the limits of his code of conduct without regard for whom it hurts. He cares about tradition, loyalty, and order but not about freedom, dignity, or life. He plays by the rules but without mercy or compassion. He is comfortable in a hierarchy and would like to rule, but is willing to serve. He condemns others not according to their actions but according to race, religion, homeland, or social rank._

 _He is loath to break laws or promises. This reluctance comes partly from his nature and partly because he depends on order to protect himself from those who oppose him on moral grounds. Some lawful evil villains have particular taboos, such as not killing in cold blood (but having underlings do it) or not letting children come to harm (if it can be helped). They imagine that these compunctions put them above unprincipled villains._

 _Some lawful evil people and creatures commit themselves to evil with a zeal like that of a crusader committed to good. Beyond being willing to hurt others for their own ends, they take pleasure in spreading evil as an end unto itself. They may also see doing evil as part of a duty to an evil deity or master._

 _Lawful evil is sometimes called "diabolical," because devils are the epitome of lawful evil._

 _Lawful evil creatures consider their alignment to be the best because it combines honor with a dedicated self-interest._

 _Lawful evil is the most dangerous alignment because it represents methodical, intentional, and frequently successful evil."_

'What a funny little book.'

The pretty maid closed it and replaced it on the shelf, before beginning to clear the table.

 _~O~_

Studying the Theocracy's death god, Demiurge couldn't help but smile. It was a set of beliefs practically tailor-made for the Supreme Being's benefit. So much so, found himself genuinely wondering if this had been all preplanned by his master's glorious mind, centuries in advance.

After all, assuming that the Supreme Beings were ageless and eternal was only logical. It was one of his pet theories, after all, that they had probably left to conquer other worlds, and would one day return victorious to Nazarick.

Right now, however, he couldn't help but grin as he kept thinking of ways to exploit the Theocracy's death god. No, perhaps, such delightful deity merely needed to be updated.

'Should I try and secure some priests?'

The Empire followed four of the Theocracy's six gods already, these being the gods of water, fire, earth and water, so the theocracy itself would certainly be more than happy to answer to requests for missionaries who could spread the faith in the gods of life and death.

However, rather than having them work against one another in a race to gain new converts, Demiurge wanted to engage both groups in theological debate, and convert them through means magical or mundane, to the service of his new Church of Life And Death, with the Supreme Being, Ainz Ooal Gown as a singular deity ruling over human lives from the cradle to the grave and beyond.

What should this beyond be, exactly? As a devil in a world with magic, it was rather self evident to demiurge that there were other planes of existence. He and everyone else in Nazarick had arrived from one, after all.

Reading what religious texts he had been able to obtain, both in the empire or in the great library of Nazarick, he had realized that there were as many a different afterlife as there were religions, and even some philosophies offered different versions of life after death.

In the end, he decided to go with reincarnation, as it was the most convenient of them all.

The idea that upon death, the soul would go to a higher plane or supreme entity, be cleansed and sent back into the world, was an easy and convenient explanation not just for his master's role in the whole process, but also ruled out the idea of a soul lingering in some heaven or hell.

It would free believers of the fear in eternal damnation, and replace it with a new, if ultimately temporal, new life, whose comfort and stature would depend on how much they contributed to their god's table upon death.

It was a simple, commercial religion where they would be able to buy not only their god's favor in this life, but also in the next.

"Please your God. Live a full life, contribute to your god's church, and receive more life right now. Live many experiences and offer them at your god's table when you die to earn new life all over again."

You could even use it to explain the disparity between fortune and suffering right now. It was simply what you deserved for the sins in your previous life. There is no chaos, everyone is where they deserve to be. If you were fortunate, you deserved to be fortunate. If you were unfortunate, it was up to you to get a better life next time around.

It was easy enough to promote.

Already, Demiurge had shown the death cultists of the empire that they could expect immediate and obvious benefits in this life. The afterlife had always been the vague promise of distant gods in the past, but the new, true god was no distant entity. It existed in the world right now, gave them wife proof of its powers, and offered a new and better life after death.

The rich and the poor, the peasants and the nobles, the stunning and the homely, everyone had reasons to convert. They may want a better life after death, they may wish to prolong their current life.

It provided a simple, easy to understand cycle of life and death, as well as an explanation for the fortune, good or bad, of people. The humans would say "of course, it makes sense now."

 _~O~_

Albedo raised into the sky, flying towards the sky castle in full gear.

Its guardians studied her, and she could sense several spells checking her level, attributes and alignment.

Almost immediately, the guardians began using spells against her, without leaving the castle doors.

Several giant hands of pure force appeared before her in the middle of the air. 10" tall from wrist to fingertip, they prevented her advance. [Interposing Hand] was a middle level spell that provided a impassable barrier and prevented an opponent from approaching its caster.

As a max level NPC specialized in defense, Albedo was exceptionally familiar with this particular spell series, since she was able to use them for great effect herself, summoning the whole spell line to grapple, annoy, punch and crush the enemies of the supreme beings.

Nothing can fool the hand-it sticks with the selected opponent in spite of darkness, invisibility, polymorphing, or any other attempts at hiding or disguise. Therefore, it wouldn't matter if Pandora's Actor polymorphed into a bird, the hands would still prevent him from approaching.

They had to be dealt with, there was no way around it.

The problem was, those guardians in the castle door were summoning more hands even as she hovered out of range.

Well, it was a extremely efficient spell for its low mana cost. The hands hp was identical to that of their summoners at full hp, and their defenses grew with their summoners level, so for example, if Albedo summoned one, it would have exceedingly high defenses and hp.

'Actually, isn't this a good way to measure how powerful those guys are?'

Indeed, if he hands before her had as much hp as the summoners, and if their defenses were dependent on their summoners level, then...

She flew forth again, and swung her axe at one of them. It took damage, but didn't fade away with a single swing.

The hands retreated a little, but Albedo didn't chase them. Indeed, she was familiar with all the spells in that series. Interposing, holding, punching and crushing hands all looked exactly the same, but the latter were far, far more dangerous. To recklessly fly into a swarm of [Bigby's Crushing Hands] would be nothing but a stupid and reckless action, so she was quite content to hover in place and consider her next move.

She flew around the castle, and as expected, the hands followed her within their maximum range, perfectly placing themselves between her and the castle guardians.

'Alright, then.'

She flew under the castle, and as expected, the hands followed her. After all, once a target was assigned to them, it was impossible to fool them. She was slightly faster than the hands, but knew that to an illusion created by the hands simply reacting to her movement rather than taking the initiative.

'How convenient.'

She smiled as she saw more and more hands being summoned.

Each hand was half transparent, allowing one to see through it as if through a dirty window, but with so many of them now between her and the castle, the swarm had become a opaque, nearly solid wall which prevented line of sight for both her and her likely foes.

She flew back up, directly over the castle, braced herself, then dive-bombed when she thought they were done with their summoning.

Nearly six dozen 10" tall hands now floated before her. As she expected, they were not merely [Bigby's Interposing Hands], which were harmless if annoying. There also were several [Bigby's Crushing Hands] hidden in the swarm, each strong enough to crush a boulder into dust or twist a giant's neck.

As one, every giant hand in the area hurried in to intercept her like a strange flock of misshapen birds of prey. There were so many of them, that it was impossible to even see Albedo under the dog pile.

Dozens of fist, strong enough to punch through castle walls and reduce boulders to sand, crashed upon her from every direction... then disappeared as one as Albedo used a [Prismatic Sphere] to welcome them.

It was one of her strongest spell-like abilities, usable three times a day.

Arguably the ultimate defensive spell, the sphere fitted Albedo's purpose perfectly. It was opaque for her enemies, yet appeared at transparent to her, and thus made it impossible to hit her with any spell requiring a target. Not only that, each of the seven layers of the sphere had to be destroyed in order before accessing the next, each demanded a very specific spell to be destroyed, and touching the sphere would automatically trigger the effects of all 7 layers on anyone foolish enough to try his luck with it.

Its disadvantages are that it couldn't move once created, and that it can't be created in a space already occupied by an enemy.

In short, she had to literally hope the enemy was stupid enough to literally run into it. Luckily, the mindless, magically floating giant hands had but one duty and reason to exist, that being to intercept, stop and crush her.

But what exactly does it mean to touch a [Prismatic Sphere] and how do you destroy it?

1st layer – Red. It stops all non-magical ranged weapons, deals fire damage to anything that touches it, and needs to be destroyed with a [Cone of Cold] spell.

2nd layer – Orange. Stops all magical ranged weapons, deals twice as much acid damage as the previous layer did in fire damage, and needs to be destroyed with a [Gust of Wind]

3rd layer – Yellow. Stops all poisons, gases, and petrification effects. It deals as much electricity damage as the previous layer did acid damage, and needs to be destroyed with a Disintegrate] spell.

4th layer – Green. Stops breath weapons, and kills you if you are not immune to poison. Even if you survive, your maximum hit points are diminished by 5% to 15%. It needs to be destroyed with a [Passwall] spell.

5th layer – Blue. Stops all divination attempts, and all mental attacks. It has a high chance to petrify any physical enemy that touches it. It needs to be destroyed with a [Magic Missile] spell.

6th layer – Indigo. Stops all spells. A enemy touching the indigo layer needs to resist or become permanently affected by _Insanity._ It needs to be destroyed with a [Daylight] spell.

7th layer – Violet. Energy field that destroys all objects and effects. If a creature somehow saves from being destroyed, it is instantly sent to another plane. It must be destroyed with a [Dispel Magic] spell.

Yes, the final, violet layer makes all other layers redundant except in that they force the enemy to spend 6 more spells in order to be able to dispel the final layer. If this was a card game, [Prismatic Sphere] would be considered insane since it would give you a seven card advantage.

You cast one spell, the enemy needs seven, very specific spells, in a very specific order, to counter or dispel yours.

This is why, [Prismatic Sphere] is considered by many as the ultimate defensive spell or ability.

A second after the giant floating hands attacked her, all that was left was Albedo inside her [Prismatic Sphere]. As she expected, the mindless hands rushed her, and were destroyed.

Still, as she left the safety of the sphere and began approaching the castle once again, the guardians at its door either took to the air in her direction, or began summoning again.

The summoners used [Black Blade of Disaster] this time. It was hard to call it a summoning spell, as it 'created' a sword-shaped black tear in reality.

The swords 'summoned' this way had the ability to ignore obstacles such as armors or shields, and dealt heavy damage to their target, and happened to be invulnerable since they weren't real weapons, but tears in reality.

Unlike [Bigby's Crushing Hand] however, the 'sword' could miss their attacks.

Of course, the violet layer of the [Prismatic Sphere] could destroy them, same as it destroyed _anything else,_ but the blades had to be ordered to attack, and the chances of the unknown guardians being as indulgent as to fall for the same trick twice, and trying to attack Albedo her within her [Prismatic Sphere] were nil.

A winged warrior dressed as a viking hero swung his axe at Albedo, while a female archer took aim with a golden bow.

"Harlot, you'd dare approach Eryuentiu, home of the Platinum Lord!?"

Albedo's axe interceptor the viking's, her weapon seemingly as heavy and steady as a fortress. No, her axe had actually dented the viking's.

"It seems some Inferior Being has claimed a grand title for himself."

She calmly replied, and quickly pulled her axe back, swinging it down against the warrior.

While her defense was leagues above what the berserk could aspire to, on the offense her strength was evenly matched with her foe, whom while being slightly lower level than herself, was more rounded up, while she was a defense specialist.

Honestly, one on one there was no doubt Albedo would quickly and easily beat the warrior. It was obvious that if heir offense was similar, she, who had defenses two orders of magnitude better, would come out on top.

"Wolric! I'll assist you!"

The female archer opened fire against Albedo, her golden bow shooting arrows so fast that it looked as if golden rays were stretching between them.

Even with the winged berserker swinging his axe at her, Albedo had little trouble either dodging or blocking the golden arrows. Her super specialized defensive traits and attributes easily dealing with their attacks.

"That old bird house? My glorious master is the only Supreme Being, Ainz Ooal Gown! It is my intention to destroy any would-be challengers of his might!"

Even while chased around by the archer's arrows, it looked as if Albedo would have eventually come out on top against the berserker, and the archer, but dealing with all six guardians and their summons would have been beyond her.

She flew under the castle once more, but this time the summons did not follow her. Obviously, their masters had no intention of losing them to another [Prismatic Sphere].

A few moments later, the summoners were quite happy to see the Berserker and the archer come back into sight with Albedo throw over Wolric's shoulder.

 _~O~_

 _Ainz was looking at a large, updated map of the Re-Estize kingdom. It was spread over the desk of his office in the dwarven capital, and held in place by Yuri's fingertips. The paper used by the locals was actually of higher quality than he expected, being woven in fine cotton threads rather than pressed, bleached vegetable fibers, but its texture sucked up ink rather harshly if one wasn't careful when working with it, causing lines and characters to become thick and distorted._

 _'Uhmm, I guess it really shows when you have a professional do the work. It really feels like a high class item.'_

 _Spilling any liquid on the map would instantly render it mostly unusable due to blurring, but as long as one was careful in that sense, it was a very durable product. It still was weak to fire, but being made of woven threads, it was highly resistant to the tear and wear of regular use._

 _"_ _What do you think, Ainz-sama?"_

 _"_ _I am quite satisfied with it. Maybe we should have one made in a bronze or copper plate, and sent to Nazarick to be used in future planning sessions."_

 _"_ _I will see to it."_

 _The map had been made by a crew of local dwarven engineers, and its accuracy was astounding. It reminded Ainz of a modern map, with proper scale and symbols, rather than the loose artistic license found in the maps used by the Re-Estize Kingdom._

 _"_ _Uhmm, looking at it, don't we actually have several villages in our domain, now? Here's Carne, but I wasn't aware of Hueso, Salsa and Fideo. We could actually develop these into more specialized roles rather than having them each grow the same produce."_

 _"_ _Should we begin moving the population around? It would be helpful to have all the people used to growing a given crop together in the same place for it, I think?"_

 _"_ _You think so, Yuri?"_

 _Ainz thought about it. As a modern company man, it seemed natural for him to relocate as his company needed him to. For the people in those villages, however, it meant abandoning their ancestral homes, but this didn't even occur to him at all._

 _In the end, what saved the people from a massive exodus wasn't Ainz humanity, but his common sense._

 _"_ _Wait, what if something happens and that village is destroyed? Wouldn't we lose all of the people familiar with that specific crop?"_

 _There were, after all, very real threats to a village's survival in this world. The group of knights that almost wiped out Carne village had successfully erased many other villages off the map, after all. It was a desire to not 'place all eggs in one basket' that kept Ainz from uprooting the villagers and moving them around._

 _~O~_

 _Yuri had to admit, she much preferred the dwarven city to E-Rantel. Even with the new streets and infrastructure upgrades of the last few months, the human city still had a long way to go before becoming as modern -and clean- as the dwarven city._

 _There were no vermin on the streets, and even in the marketplace, it was hard to find a stray dog or stain in the ground. The dwarves seemed healthy and were well dressed, every one of them seemingly clear on his or her purpose, and working hard in order to improve not just their own lot in life, but their community as a whole._

 _"_ _Miss Yuri, it is such a pleasure to see you again. What will it be today?"_

 _As a royal guest, Ainz was provided and cared for by a small army of local servants, but he had asked Yuri to browse the local markets and gain as accurate an idea as possible of the local goods and their value._

 _"_ _What are these, and how do you prepare them?"_

 _She gestured towards some thick, pale pink roots. She had no aversion towards any local product, and the idea of growing food without direct sunlight was immensely appealing to her as a citizen of underground Nazarick._

 _Even if 'normal' vegetables could be grown in the 6_ _th_ _floor, the addition of new goods to Nazarick's pantries could only be a good thing. Adding dwarven vegetables, which were able to grow underground, meant that many more floors were now possible farming grounds._

 _~O~_

 _"_ _...why, yes, we do have religious freedom. The people are free to pray to whomever they choose, as long as they continue to pay their taxes, and their faith doesn't require them to harm other sentient beings."_

 _The young blood emperor, Jircniv Rune Farlord el Nix, was honestly surprised by the toadman's question. The Baharut Empire formally recognized the Four Great Gods as its state religion, but didn't require its citizens to adhere to it._

 _In fact, if the emperor was a religious man, he would have in all likelihood found his faith on thin ice at the thought of worshiping a deity that allowed a creature such as Ainz Ooal Gown to exist._

 _"_ _Is that sho? Won-derfhul!"_

 _Demiurge's attention had already wandered off his own question towards a pretty dancer nearby, and was looking at her swaying figure while stuffing his mouth with food._

 _Of course, he didn't really had any interest in the human girl, other than perhaps as a new addition to the breeders of his two-legged sheep farm. Having good stock depended on proper breeding, after all, and the girl seemed to ooze health and a healthy sexuality as her body swayed and twisted in time with the music. Of course, he was indeed playing the part of a dull beastman full of obvious flaws and appetites, so he looked at the girl with feigned interest as he continued to eat._

 _"_ _Would you like me to send her to you?"_

 _Jircniv was delighted to see that Demiurge wasn't immune to the dancer's attractive. If it would gain him a foothold on Nazarick, he would gladly sacrifice every dancing girl in the capital to the 'ambassador' and go to sleep with a clear conscience at night, knowing that it had been to protect the future not just of the empire or humanity, but of all living beings._

 _"_ _They all look like such good breeders, could I have them all? The men too."_

 _Greed, gluttony and lust. Demiurge was meant to incarnate all those things before the young emperor. Besides, it was a great chance to add high quality stock to his breeding pens. The citizens of E-Rantel, the adventurers and all the surviving humans in his 'farm' had been pretty random additions, so he didn't held any high expectations about the quality of their offspring._

 _'Eh? The men too? Wait, is he male or female? Does gender matters to him?'_

 _"_ _I... don't see why not."_

 _The minister sitting next to Jircniv was horrified, but everyone in the room had been carefully selected by their devotion and understanding of their roles tonight. They were fighting for the survival of the world. Everyone, even Jircniv himself, was expendable._

 _"_ _Oh, that's great, that's great! Thank you, your highness."_

 _Having said so, Demiurge showed a wide, toothy smile, and began drinking from a tall jar, directly pouring its contents into his open maw._

 _"_ _I am glad you enjoy our food and drinks. Would you like some more, Demiurge-sama?"_

 _Two servants approached with a empty cart to retrieve the empty bowls, and one with fresh food and drinks. The one pushing the food cart waited until Demiurge replied with a nod of his head, and began placing the food on the now empty table._

 _"_ _It's not bad, but I feel as if I'd need at least three times this much in order to try and match Nazarick's quality with quantity."_

 _Jircniv couldn't even comment. He had tasted the food and drink of Nazarick only once, and he had to admit to them being leagues above the standards of the Empire's finest cuisine._

 _'Well, I understand trying to compete against quality with quantity, but as Ainz Ooal Gown, that monster, demonstrated at the Katze plains, quantity its no match for truly exceptional quality. No matter how many anthills are emptied to try and take down a dragon, it will still be a pointless fight._

 _'All we can hope for is that humanity united is more like a endless pack of wolves than a plain covered in ants when it comes to slaying the dragon that is Ainz Ooal Gown and the monsters in Nazarick.'_

 _~O~_

"Excellent work, Wolric! How did you manage to take her down?"

The summoners greeted the winged warriors with cheers as they approached them.

"It was easier than you'd think. Right, Albedo?"

At that moment, Albedo's axe appeared in her hands and she swung it against the closest summoner, while the mentally dominated archer did the same against the furthest away one, and 'Wolric' moved to thrust a glowing shortsword through the neck of the summoner before him.

Pandora's Actor [Mage Slayer] thrust had a _silence_ effect added to its heavy damage, and rendered the target unable to cast or use skills for a full 12 seconds, plenty of time for the berserker he had turned himself into to finish it off.

Indeed, it would have been too much to expect from either of them to be able to get into melee with the summoners, protected as they were by a constantly increasing host of magically-summoned defenders, but since their opening summon was [Bigby's Crushing Hand] suggested that they relied on the magical hands' impossible ability to tell friend from foe in order to avoid falling for illusions and the like.

As soon as Pandora's Actor had seen those, he had suggested this plan to Albedo. It was a calculated risk, and it had paid beautifully.

 _~O~_

 _As soon as she dived under the castle and out of the summoners line of sight, they ordered their summoned [Black Blade of Disaster] to stop, least they too finish themselves off by running (flying, really) into another [Prismatic Sphere]._

 _Thus, it had been just the berserk and the archer behind Albedo._

 _The pure-white devil began flying around and behind the floating rocks beneath the castle, as if to find cover against the winged archer's shots. The berserker had chased after her, leaving the archer behind, which was all that Pandora's Actor, temporarily playing the part of a flying rock, needed in order to launch a mental assault against her._

 _A successful [Dominate] later, it was suddenly a three-to-one situation against Wolric, with a dominated level 85 ally and two level 100 enemies collaborating to take him down._

 _"_ _Did it work?"_

 _Albedo looked at Pandora's Actor while the greater doppelganger stood on top of a flying rock and shapeshifted into the now gone berserker._

 _"_ _Yes! The divination and dimensional barriers held, so he was unable to use [Message] to warn his friends above. It was a fully successful operation!"_

 _"_ _Alright. You, how many more guardians are there in the castle, and are you the highest leveled ones?"_

 _Albedo addressed the dominated archer, and she confirmed that indeed, the six of them were all that was left of the original guild._

 _"_ _Let's go, then."_

 _~O~_

 _Trapped in ultra close-quarters fighting with Albedo and Pandora's actor, the remaining guardians did their best by quickly spreading out and attempting to summon again, but it was already a lost fight._

 _Pandora's Actor shape shifted again into Tabula Smaragdina, and used the mental powers of the paragon illithid [2] to great effect, quickly mind-blasting the two nearest summoners to temporarily retire them from the fight._

 _The_ _silenced_ _summoner tried to push Pandora's Actor off the platform by the castle doors, but Albedo had already determined the greater doppelganger[3] as target of her [Bodyguard] skill, and so automatically countered the perceived 'attack' with lethal force._

 _With a single swing of her axe, the staff and arms of the already wounded and silenced summoner, hit the ground before falling off the platform and down unto the desert._

 _The silent scream of the deathly wounded NPC lasted the whole 4 seconds that it took her to sublimate and disappear._

 _With one already dead and two temporarily stunned, the last summoner stepped backwards before using a [Mindblank] spell to protect himself against any mental attack, thus protecting himself against Pandora's Actor [Mindblast] and [Domination] mental attacks._

 _"_ _Ah, that might've been a good idea, if our Tabula Smaragdina-sama wasn't also the boomstick of Ainz Ooal Gown. [Polar Ray]!"_

 _Pandora's Actor couldn't access Tabula Smaragdina's over magic nor 10_ _th_ _level spells, but a 9_ _th_ _level [Polar Ray] hit the desperate NPC in the stomach, almost instantly turning him into an ice sculpture. The cold was so absolute that the ground was covered in frost, and the ice sculpture shattered into ice crystals after a few moments had passed._

 _Albedo simply began hitting one of the stunned guardians, dropping it to the floor in one blow and then continuing to smack it with her axe until there was nothing but gore and blood on the floor. It was truly a scene worthy of a censoring mosaic, as the blood kept splattering 6" tall into the walls before the NPC finally sublimated and disappeared._

 _In the meanwhile, Pandora's Actor used Tabula Smaragdina's [Brain Eating] ability to quite simply wraps his tentacles around the final, helpless summoner and archer's heads, then quite simply pull their brains out through their mouth._

 _A human would have found the scene deeply disturbing and gutwrenching, but Albedo didn't even bat an eye as she watched._

 _"_ _Hmph! let us explore this glorified bird house now."_

 _"_ _I think you are being too harsh on the place, my lady commander. Just think, wouldn't it make a lovely vacation home for you and Ainz-sama to spend cold winter nights together? Rather than a birdhouse, isn't it a grand love nest?"_

 _Pandora's Actor gestured towards the white castle, then to the scenery, his arms making a grand sweeping motion as he spoke, but by the time he looked at the succubus again, she was lost in her own world._

 _"_ _Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest..."_

 _"_ _Mein commander... Albedo, hello?"_

 _Pandora's Actor waved his hands before Albedor for a minute, but she was unresponsive. Bright red, with both hands on her face, the succubus was busy squirming and grinning to herself. In the end, he had to snap his fingers a couple of times before she snapped back to reality._

 _"_ _A-a-a-a l-love nest... a love nest for Ainz-sama and myself... ah... ahaha... ahahahaha... yes! Indeed! This castle is such a wonderful place! just perfect as a secluded, intimate love nest for my beloved Ainz-sama and myself... yo-you are a genius, Pandora's Actor!"_

 _It took a while for Albedo to calm down, it wasn't until Pandora's Actor suggested that they still had to clean the place out and vacate any remaining inhabitants, that Albedo truly got a grip of herself._

 _"_ _Yes! We can't allow for squatters to infest my and Ainz-sama's love nest!"[4]_

 _The succubus' fighting spirit was MAX! and Pandora's Actor could have swore she was in flames as she picked up her axe and moved into the castle._

 _~O~_

 _The dwarves couldn't understand how their king could so comfortably chat and laugh with the terrible undead sitting next to him._

 _"_ _Ugh, don't you have a Heaven's Feather, a Fallen Seed or any other race change stuff[5]? Not being able to eat or drink sounds awful! Not to mention girls... oh man I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to...! I mean, can you... you know?"_

 _"_ _I honestly wouldn't know. I haven't tried but I doubt it? I mean, I'm just a skeleton."_

 _"_ _Uhmm right, right. Well, something we definitively have to be grateful for is how long we get to live, right? I mean, a dwarf lives for about half a millenia or so. I'm still pretty young by the race's standard. Ah! Hey, you do have some, right? Race change items, I mean? Like I said, I'm still young, but between young and ageless, I know which one I'd prefer."_

 _"_ _How about a Book of the Dead?"_

 _"_ _Eh? I don't wanna be undead. I mean, we'd go back to what I asked you earlier, right? You can't eat, drink or fuck, right? Come think of it, can you even sleep?"_

 _"_ _I can sleep, just don't feel a need for it. But I do happen to enjoy it."_

 _"_ _Ah, well, the smart thing to do would have been to turn yourself into an angel before letting the outside world see you, right? I bet they would be singing a very different tune if an angel had descended from the heavens and rescued that .. what was the name of that village you saved, again?"_

 _"_ _Carne."_

 _"_ _Right! You can bet they would have made a holiday out of it if an angel had come down and rescued Carne village, and you would have saved yourself a lot of pain and bad rep, too! Natural undead are pretty much just like game mobs, you know? They attack anything that isn't another undead."_

 _"_ _Yes, I guess you're right, but it's a bit too late now. I guess Albedo would be happy if I ...ah, never mind."_

 _"_ _Uh nope, no way, who's Albedo, man?"_

 _Indeed, for Satoru Suzuki, having someone to talk with was like balm for the soul, pretty much literally. Being surrounded by nothing but sycophants, worshipers and yes men. It was incredibly tiring to have to play the perfect evil overlord 24 hours a day 365 days a year, always worrying about every single little decision, every single word, every single gesture._

 _Ainz had to practice his mannerisms and way of speech before his full body mirror three times a day before he felt confident enough to leave his bedroom in Nazarick._

 _~O~_

 _"_ _Ah, sounds like she would indeed be happy if you switched, uh?"_

 _The dwarf king smiled while drinking from his cup. His situation wasn't quite as 'bad' as Ainz's was, but he too was glad to have a fellow player to talk with after such a long time._

 _"_ _Yama."_

 _"_ _Uhm?"_

 _Please don't make me kill you, alright?_

 _Yama Kobito, the dwarven king known as the Magic Craftsman, nearly chocked on his drink._

 _"_ _Gah -cough- well, I bloody well hope you don't have to! ...ah, you killed my buzz. I think I'm quite sober now. In fact, I think this is the very definition of sobriety. Come on, I guess we should excuse ourselves and go talk business for a while."_

 _"_ _I'm sorry, and sure."_

 _That's how both the king and his guest left the banquet hall and moved to the gardens, walking around in between strange luminescent flowers as big as palm trees, and gemstones that lined up the dwarven palace's gardens._

 _"_ _That's pretty impressive."_

 _Ainz was talking about the diamonds thrown around at either side of the garden, marking its roads._

 _"_ _The flowers? Yeah, there's so much life growing underground, you wouldn't believe it. Even back on Earth there were plenty of weird stuff, but on this world its just mind blowing."_

 _"_ _I meant the gems. Is that quartz?"_

 _"_ _Uh? No, they're diamonds. You find them by the truckload when you dig deep enough."_

 _"_ _Aren't you filthy rich, then?"_

 _"_ _Ah, you are still thinking of the prices on Earth. Diamonds are mostly worthless around here. You can't really work them the way you could with other gems, and they're actually very common, you know? If you think they're so wonderful, I'll fill your bedroom with them in exchange for one of those Heavenly Feathers."_

 _"_ _Wait, seriously?"_

 _"_ _Of course."_

 _"_ _The prices from Earth...? Do you mind if I take just one and come back to you on that offer later? There's something I have to try, first."_

 _"_ _Sure. Help yourself."_

 _Ainz reached down and grabbed a diamond the size of a grape. If the treasure room's Exchange Box was operating based on Earth's prices... just the rocks on this garden could solve all of Nazarick's budget issues for decades to come._

 _"_ _Thanks."_

 _"_ _Hey, while you are feeling thankful, there's some serious issues I'd like to talk with you about. You are familiar with the Theocracy, right?"_

 _"_ _The country? Yes, I already ran into their forces before."_

 _"_ _That should make things simple then. You know they inherited some of Yggdrasil's worst features, right? I'm talking about their very open racism against non humans."_

 _"_ _I had read some reports about it, but is it so bad?"_

 _"_ _Elves are only good as slaves for them. They're literally their biggest export, and there's not that much difference between an elf and a human. Us dwarves have managed to avoid such a treatment, but only because we are too useful and because attacking a dwarven city is a exceedingly difficult thing to do. On the other hand, those assholes seem to have inherited some World Items, and-"_

 _"_ _What did you say1?"_

 _Ainz interrupted Yama on the spot. This, could it be that he had finally found whomever it was that attacked Shalltear!?_

 _~O~_

 _"_ _I see. Right... so, whomever the Six Gods were, they had World Items with them. And the Theocracy uses them to force the dwarves to pay tribute to them every year."_

 _"_ _That is pretty much it, yes. They also prevent us from expanding. It doesn't matters how secretly it is founded, they have no trouble finding any new outpost and wiping it out before it can be properly fortified. I assure you, there's nothing a dwarf values higher than his clan, so there's no way there's a traitor feeding them the information."_

 _"_ _Yes, I remember there was someone scrying on my fight with their Sunlight Script-."_

 _"_ _Oh? What happened?"_

 _"_ _It turns out, they were trying to assassinate Gazef Stronoff, the warrior captain of the Re-Estize Kingdom."_

 _"_ _I know who he is. To think they are so involved in the kingdom's politics... well, I was hoping you would agree to allying with me."_

 _"_ _Eh? What?"_

 _"_ _I mean, to ally your Sorcerous Kingdom with the Dwarven Kingdom. Next time they send a inquisitor looking for their tribute, I want you to stand by my side and help me tell them to go bugger themselves."_

 _"_ _If your diamonds fulfill my expectations, I'll be more than happy to ally our kingdoms."_

 _~O~_

 _Yuri Alpha had become fairly popular with the kitchen staff. She was a kind and beautiful, if strict, person to work with, and seemed more than eager to learn everything the staff could teach her. She was particularly interested in the local ingredients and their preparation, albeit her luck seemed supernaturally bad when it came to cooking._

 _Basically, she was the type of person that would cause the vegetables in a salad to catch flame and become charred without fire having been involved in the process at any point. It was to the point where it was unreal._

 _Still, she persevered, and stayed up late into the night while doing so. Her dedication was such, that the staff began commenting on how it seemed she had no need for rest as long as she had her duty._

 _Well, they were not too far from the truth. As a undead Dullahan, Yuri Alpha indeed had no need for rest, though she did made a pause to wash herself and her clothes before going back to attend her master._

 _It was this effort and dedication that truly earned her the admiration of the staff, and she was practically beaming with pride when she reported to her master that morning._

 _"_ _Ainz-sama, your breakfast."_

 _She walked into her master's room pushing a food cart with a simple salad and a glass of water._

 _Ainz had no need for food, and as a fellow undead, Yuri was aware of it, so he couldn't help but to look at her for a moment._

 _"_ _Yuri, why a salad?"_

 _"_ _It's the only thing I am capable of preparing with the local ingredients at this time."_

 _"_ _I see, alright. ...eh? Wait, what?"_

 _"_ _I have finally raised my [Cook] level to 2, Ainz-sama!"_

 _The battle maid was besides herself with pride and satisfaction. It had been several months since Ainz had ordered her and her sisters to try and cook, then forgotten about it since most of hem seemed unable to prepare anything that wasn't charred beyond recognition._

 _But Yuri, Shizu and the rest had never stopped trying. And finally, Yuri had succeeded._

 _"_ _Oh, congratulations, Yuri Alpha of the Pleiades's! This is a great achievement indeed. If you can learn new skills, perhaps then even I could do the same? I was unable to wield a sword before, but if I kept trying long enough, then perhaps... no, wait, this may be related to you not being level 100 yet. You could say that you still have growing potential..."_

 _Ainz thought about it for a while._

 _"_ _What is your current level? Your experience?"_

 _"_ _Ah, my total level has gone up to 52. I have only now succeeded in leveling up, so my current experience is 0.5% with 99.95% to go before level up."_

 _"_ _I see. So basically, your [Cook] level went from 1 to 2, and you became able to prepare some local foods."_

 _"_ _That would be the case, Ainz-sama."_

 _"_ _Yuri, listen, you don't have to raise your [Cook] level if you would prefer to raise something else. We can always have someone else prepare our meals. To begin with, neither one of us needs to eat, so I don't want you to worry about preparing something that will only go to waste."_

 _"_ _It is not a problem, Ainz-sama. After all, Yamaiko-sama saw fit for me to be a [Cook] as well as a warrior, so I believe she would be happy to see me growing in whatever direction interests me most."_

 _"_ _...it is as you say. As long as it is what you truly wish, I have no objections. Yuri Alpha of the Pleiades's Six Stars, you have worked hard. Once we return to Nazarick, please let me know how I could reward you for it."_

 _"_ _No reward is necessary, Ainz-sama. Ultimately, whom but myself would be the most benefited by my level going up?"_

 _"_ _Don't be difficult, Yuri. I already spoke, so please begin thinking of a request."_

 _"_ _Yes, Ainz-sama."_

 _Yuri bowed deeply and left the room. Once she was in the hallway outside, she made a gutsy victory gesture with both hands closed into fists as she let out a 'yes!' of joy._

 _Meanwhile, inside the room, Ainz was deep in thought._

 _Now that he knew it was possible to level up in this world, should he focus on rising the level of his followers? His Death Knights were level 35, and while that seemed to be quite strong for this world, the one he had tasked with learning [Martial Arts] had yet to show any progress._

 _Was it impossible then, for a creature from Yggdrasil to learn this world's [Martial Arts]? Yuri had managed to learn a local recipe through her [Cook] job._

 _He was lost in such thoughts, when his eyes fell on the salad that Yuri Alpha had left in his room._

 _'And... what am I supposed to do with this?'_

 _~O~_

Author Notes:

With the incoming release of vol. 10, I'm planning on either abandoning the Ainz Ooal Gown side of this fanfic, or adopting whatever happens on it and continuing, depending on if the Dragonic Kingdom disappears or not. Guess we'll just have to see what happens.

[1] Both this quote, and the fragment I inserted in Demiurge's book are there to show how well they apply not only to our smiling devil guardian, but also to the Theocracy, and how it treats other races under the excuse of mankind's defense.

[2] I invite you to look up "Illithid" on wikipedia before whining to me about Tabula Smaragnida NOT being an Illithid, but a 'Brain Eater' as it says on his sheet. I highly recommend the 'Typical Physical Characteristics' section of the wikipedia article. Personally, I think Tabula Smaragdina was an Alhoon. You can read on them on 'Illithid Variants' further down that same article.

[3] Again, wikipedia is your friend. Look up 'Doppelganger' on it.

[4] I know you should never mention yourself before someone else in a phrase, but my English wasn't good enough to figure out how to say this properly.

[5] Heaven's Feather and Fallen Seed are used to change races in Yggdrasil to angel or devil, respectively. If I remember correctly, Ainz does have some of these and even offered one to Cocytus at the end of the 4th volume.


	8. Chapter 7 - Genesis

Chapter 7

A New Legend is Born

The Adventurer's Guild was busy again. The beastmen army had been anihilated about a week ago, and permission had finally been given for parties to venture outside the city again. This meant they could take quests again, and after such a long dry spell, most parties were (some literally) starving for work.

Thus, it was no surprise that the common hall was crowded with people. It was to the point where only 1 or 2 people per party could be allowed into the building at the same time, least it overflowed out the windows and doors.

"What do you think of this one?" - Albion poked a poster and waited for Tazar to look at it.

C – Class Quest

A giant spider's nest has been found 12km north of Daurgothot.

Their exact numbers are unknown, but at least one sword spider has been confirmed in the area.

Proceed with extreme caution.

Only parties of Mithril rank or higher.

Reward: 20 Dragonic Kingdom gold coins for the head of the Sword Spider

5 Dragonic Kingdom gold coins each for the head of lesser species.

"The local coinage has lost in value ever since those 'bullion gold coins' showed up." - The dwarf replied after a few moments.

"I meant about the quest. Should we take it?"

"You do know what a sword spider is, right? If it jumps on one of the girls, they're pretty much gone."

"It is mine and Grumnir's job to keep that from happening."

"Those things can _really_ jump you know? Have you fought one before?"

"No, but I've heard the tales. They'll jump to impale someone using their legs as spears. But if we can get it, it'll prove we are worth our rank."

"Yer worried 'bout Lyann helping too much, aren't ya?"

The dwarf looked at Albion in the eye for a moment. Indeed, their newest member did very little during actual combat, but her support made everyone feel invincible all the same. It was understandable that some of them had mixed feelings about her.

She was basically a healbot during combat, but before or after, she did 3 or 4 people's worth of work, did it efficiently, and without complain. Even ignoring the 'buffs' she gave them, she could patch them up, sharpen their weapons, cook, repair their armors, set up camp and tell fun fireside stories.

"If I manage to save her life or something like that, I'll invite her a drink."

"I'm pretty sure she'd say yes if you asked her now."

"Ya, but you know... a drink in private."

"Yer not chasing a sword spider to get laid, are ye? I'm telling you, those critters are bad news."

"Please give me a bit more credit, I'm not a teenager anymore."

Albion looked at Tazar with a mildly offended look, and tapped the poster again.

"Uhmm if yer sure, let's go for it."

The dward ended up agreeing, so Albion ripped the poster off the wall and walked to the counter with it. The clerk charged him 1 gold coin as comission fee, and officially assigned the mission to their party.

"Good luck." -the clerk registered the quest at their name, and returned his adventurer tag to Albion.

"Thanks. See you soon."

Having secured the job, Albion and Tazar left the guild and headed back to the Red Giant, the inn and tavern where the rest of their party was staying at.

~O~

"What sort of public lighting system should we install in Sorventh? ~fa"

"A magical one would be more expensive to install, but would pay itself off in the long run."

Celi Malefactor replied without hesitation. Indeed, it could be a pricey investment, but the lack of upkeep for both lighs and fuel would pay for it within a year. However...

"Didn't we agree not to use magic to solve everything? Technology won't improve if magic can solve any problem. Darwin's law taken to a different field. No two creatures can evolve to fill the same niche at the same time."

Doctor's Orders reminded her sister of their plans to push for technological evolution. Magic was very much holding technology back in this world.

"It is as Mako-sama says. Installing magical lights would be a efficient and permanent solution, but that is a problem on itself. If we leave room for improvement, people is likely to reach for that goal and come up with a better solution on their own." - Burlaug took off his translation spectables and stopped reading the Dragonic Kingdom's book that Lyann had brought him.

It was a rather thick book containing the kingdom's laws. It would be convenient to be familiar with it in the future.

"Well, won't they try and 'improve' with magic? ~fa"

"That is quite likely. Perhaps we should pass a law to regulate the use of magic in civilian projects?"

General Li added his thoughts while keeping his arms crossed before himself. His figure dwarfed those of everyone around the table, but his polite demeanor helped everyone ignore that fact. As a fan of tradition and law, he honestly believed that fair laws and clear rules were the best way to rule, wether the subject of one's rule was an army or a realm.

"No, rather than trying to force people to do things the way we want with no explanation, shouldn't we make them want to do things that way on their own? Let's offer some sort of incentive for technological progress, something like the Nobel prize."

Celi Malefactor crossed her arms under her chest as she mused on it. It pushed her breasts together and emphasized them against her dress, but it was genuinely her 'thinking posture' rather than an attempt to show off her rather generous figure.

"We could hold an annual or biannual contest! How about military, cultural and academical categories to begin with? ~fa"

"Do we need a military category? I don't want to endorse an arms race. And do we have to choose a winner? What if there's no outstanding candidates for a given category in that specific year?"

Mako, Doctor's Orders, was as much of a fan of _fantasy violence_ as any Yggdrassil player, but _actual violence_ was something completely different.

"I agree, we shouldn't promote violence. Also, rather than a one time prize, it should be an annual amount, like a grant. The first payment would be delivered to the winner, but to collect in years to come, the winner needs to do so in person, in Sorventh. ~fa"

"Why?" -Ren turned to look at her friend

"That way we'd encourage them to reside in our lands, without actually doing so, right Lyann-sama?" - General Li answered afer a moment.

"Yes! Prize winners get automatic citizenship, and a house is part of the prize. We also offer free transportation if required. ~sol"

After talking about it for a while, they decided to call it the Peace Prize, and have cultural, academic and/r scientific advance categories, emulating Earth's Nobel Prize.

"But, what do we do about Sorventh public lighting system? ~fa"

"Burlaug-sama, please look for the most efficient non-magical solution over the next week."

"M-Mako-sama! You don't need to add such a title to my name! No, you don't need to add any title at all, in fact!"

"Alright, then... Burlaug, please look into it and give us your opinion within a month."

"Yes, Mako-sama!"

~O~

The Dragonic Kingdom, as a human realm immediately adjacent to the Slane Theocracy, had more than its fair share of believers in the religion of the Six Gods, and the recent events had caused them to flock to the temples in droves.

That's why, the bishops in the capital had gathered today, trying to decide what to report to the archbishops in the Slave Theocracy about the people of Tengoku Junzi.

"That an entire city could have been hidden for so long in the mountains is preposterous. I trust we all agree on that?"

The bishop of Earth spoke calmly. A tall and physically strong man, he looked more like a warrior than a man of the cloth, with a finaly sculpted body standing out under his white and brown robes. His face was handsome and cleanly shaved, yet one could always see the hint of a beard just waiting to grow the moment he let it.

"Specially considering that it is allegedly placed right between us and the holy fatherland!"

The bishop of Fire chipped in. A devout believer in the might of the Six Gods, the idea that such a place had been unnoticed by their prophets and seers for such a fantastic length of time was simply ridiculous to him. His flock had ran to him and flooded his church every single day, and he had had very little rest as of late. It was to the point where the tall and thin man was about to develop a nervous tic.

"It is there." - The bishop of wind said softly.

"But what abo- what did you say!?"

The bishop of Water was about to say something, but as if his brain had needed a couple of moments to accept what his colleague had said, he cut himself half-sentence.

"It is there. The first thing I did when I heard about it was organize a small group of priests and attempt to use [Clarivoyance] to search for it. Sure enough, we found it almost immediately, right where the lady Celi Malefactor said it was, almost directly north west from Sorventh in a wide valley with no access roads, surrounded by mountains on all sides."

There was a short moment of silence, before his colleagues started demanding details.

~O~

"Thank you, please deliver this message to captain Brook at the southern wall repair site."

Juno handed a rolled up document to a ursinal shaman, and the bear man saluted him before leaving. The sight of such a robust being walking around in a fine uniform and talking with such a calm, polite tone was strangely reassuring now that the temporal mayor of Sorventh had grown used to him and his kin.

Ever since General Subutai had left him in charge, Juno had been constantly surprised by the relief troops he now commanded. The powerful equinals had no issue with the heaviest physical labors, and steadily rebuilt the north and eastern walls at record speeds, being led by the much thinner and frail-looking cervidals, whom calmly and like expert engineers, traced plans not just for repairing the walls, but for new roads through and out of the city, as well as several new buildings and plazas according to the rough guidelines sent from Tengoku Junzi.

It was an odd feeling, knowing that the beastmen were gone, and that Sorventh and the lands around it had become the first province in a large new realm, of which Juno didn't even knew the name yet.

Just a few hundred feet away, a equinal crew was busy tearing down the ruined houses to the left of the main road as part of the urban renewal plans. Juno didn't really understand the floorprints, but his sister Alissa had always had a better head than him, and she assured him that the city would be quite beautiful when the work was done.

'What's wrong with the city as it is right now? Well, other than the ruins, that is. Shouldn't we just rebuild?'

The central square had been torn down completely, then the ursinal shamans had created four equidistant springs on its grounds, and it had been rebuilt with water fountains on top of each spring, each showing a different sculpture of three stunningly beautiful winged women holding large jars from which cool, crystal clear water flowed out constantly, its gentle splashing sound seeming to sing before the water spilled over into numerous channels that surround the edges of the new square, seemingly enclosing it, but with white stone bridges crossing them towards an ample plaza and monolith in the middle of the square.

Plenty of tall and dignified trees had been easily uprooted from the surrounding countryside and relocated before the new five-store buildings surrounding the plaza, giving the impression that they had grown there for years. It was an easy job for the equinals, two of which could easily carry grown trees as two men could carry a hand ladder.

Of course, the urban renewal had began only after the kitchens and temporal houses had been erected, with hundreds of tables placed together in different sectors of town, where warm meals were served at no cost every day.

Juno was curious about the 'school'. For some reason, the fabled 'Exalted Ones' seemed to believe it was a very important piece of infraestructure. It was the largest among the new buildings in town, larger even than the new city hall, with half a dozen long buildings of five floors each, two 'sport courts' in its inner gardens between the buildings, a 'gym' and a 'track and field' adjacent to it.

For Juno, it seemed almost like a fortress, but the low, bright red brick walls around it would be awfully inadequate for such a role.

When some of the cervidals began gathering the children and giving lessons in the school, he was just further confused by it. Such a thing as 'universal education' was unknown even in the Baharuth Empire, which boasted of its magical university and military academies for the children of nobility and its army officers.

Still, the children walking along with books under their arms had become a common sight now. State sponsored free books. It was mind blowing, but apparently the school also served meals for the children and kept them out of trouble, so he couldn't help but be grateful about it.

The few adults had gone back to their stores and workshop, and found that the 'relief troops' were polite, good customers that eagerly consumed the local goods and services, paying with heavy 'gold bullion coins,' which was apparently the new standard coin in town.

A cervidal had installed a desk in town hall to collect and trade old Dragonic Kingdom coins in exchange for the new coins, and people had quickly grown used to them. It genuinely looked as if the much diminished population of the city was well on its way towards recovery.

"Juno!" -Alissa, his sister, ran to him with a excited expression.

"Yes, what is it?"

"I just heard the news from a Lantern 'con, a Exalted One is coming!"

"What, when!?"

"As soon as the new houses around main avenue are completed, so she can stay in one of them!"

"Uh? Not the mayor's house? This really is too big a job for me. I hope she's my replacement."

"Oh, you are doing fine, everyone says so, so hang in there, big brother!"

Juno sighed.

~O~

"...and then you mix it with yellow, and it makes green. Like this."

Mako was sitting on the smooth floor in one of the recently opened Tengoku Junzi Kindergartens, surrounded by children around the age of 5. She was wearing a pair of rolled up short pants made into shorts, and a soft, long white shirt, with her long black hair left mostly loose behind her, bound by a single white lace at about waist height. These were her 'let's get dirty and fave fun' clothes, or to be more direct, the clothes she wears whenever she is visiting the children.

The rakshasa had made orphans out of hundreds of children, and most horribly, eaten almost all of those under the age of 5. Once general Subutai began sending them through the [Gate], it became obvious that the originally projected orphanage and daycare would be too small for taken care of them.

Most were placed in the homes of the good citizens of Tengoku Junzi, but a few were deemed too traumatized to be so suddenly placed with new families, and instead had been directly adopted by the Golden Citadel itself, meaning that they had become the new adoptive children of the Exalted Ones.

Out of the three, however, Mako was the one that spent the most time with them. They were normally taken care of by a shift of Devas, gentle-looking winged beings that most closely resembled the prototypical angel of christianity, but Lyann was out of town most of the time, and Ren was quite busy with her job as ambassador and her research and designs to make an ideal country[1], and turn Sorventh into an ideal city[2].

That is not to say that Mako is idle, because she is indeed quite busy, but she does the bulk of her work in the Golden Citadel itself, and is thus the one physically closest to the children.

"Now let's paint a tree... there you go."

The children were either sitting next to her, standing behind her and leaning against her back, or playing with her wings, but the angel didn't mind them, and continued to help the smallest of them to paint a tree.

"Alright, let's everyone paint a tree now, and then we'll have cookies." -Mako announces with a cheerful tone.

""""""Yeah, cookies!""""""

One of the girls came to her after a little bit, her small hands covered in green paint, same as much of her blue overalls were. She hug-tackled her, leaving small green handprints on her shirt.

"Fanny, what is it?"

"Mako-sensei, when is my mommy coming for me?"

"Oh, Fanny..."

Mako picked up the girl and hugged her, gently patting her back.

'Sending those demons to hell may have been too kind.' -such were her thoughts at the time.

~O~

Burlaug took a look into the kindergarten through the window. Doctor's Orders was hugging a small girl, gently running her back, while many other kids hugged her legs. Her shirt, shorts, legs and wings were now full of colorful, small handprints, but his deity didn't mind.

She showed the children a radiant smile, and had them make a train by holding hands as she took them towards the table where the devas had prepared cookies and milk in advance.

'To let Doctor's Orders-sama feel anger... I should have asked Subutai for a private report before he spoke at the meeting table, we could have dealt with those demons without needing to bother the Exalted Ones.'

But, he knew that as much as he wished for it, he couldn't protect his beloved creator from the evil in the world. All he could do was to smile grimly as he remembered the way in which he brought an end to the rakshasa's capital.

~O~

A week ago

The beastmen's country was powerful, and completely ruled over the surrounding lands, having subjugated, consumed, or intimidated its neighbors to the point where an attack would be unimaginable. The sentries on its capital's walls were mostly there in a traditional role, a sort of dishonorable retirement for veterans who failed to die in battle.

2:00 Until the disappearance of the rakshasa capital. There was not a cloud in the sky. The stars, cold and distant witnesses of the rakshasa's brutality, shined softly in the distant sky, as if they wanted to deny them their light.

1:50 Until the disappearance of the rakshasa capital. The guards on top of the northern wall see a massive shade moving in the distance. As if a mountain was approaching, the stars disappeared behind it for a few moments.

1:20 Until the disappearance of the rakshasa capital. A guard identifies the shadow as vaguely humanoid. It was, however, very square, as if a creature with legs too short and shoulders too wide was approaching in the night.

0:50 Until the disappearance of the rakshasa capital. Several guards agree, it looks like a dwarf of impossible size. The guard captain is summoned and the alarm bells are sounded. It looks as if the incoming 'dwarf' is carrying several immense, round objects on its back.

0:30 Until the disappearance of the rakshasa capital. The 'dwarf' drops his cargo to the ground. A massive but brief earthquake is felt and everyone in the city wakes up because of it. Five large craters are created. Each will, in time, fill up with water to form small lagoons which can be observed to this day.

0:05 Until the disappearance of the rakshasa capital. The 'dwarf' has, one by one, picked up and launched the gigantic boulders into the air. Like a giant catapult, its arms hurl the hill-sized rocks into the night sky.

0:01 Until the disappearance of the rakshasa capital. A collective gasp of horror comes from the mouths of the guards and their captain as five massive meteors fall down upon them.

On the bare and hard surface of five enormous hills of rock, nothing can take root or grow. It is said that there once stood a city, though there is no evidence of it anywhere on the hills.

'To make the divine Mako-sama angry... perhaps it was too merciful an end?'

After looking at his goddess for a few minutes, the (temporarily) shrunken colossus[3] smiled. His creator had wished for him to be a kind-hearted giant, helping others whenever possible, laboring tirelessly for the common good.

As the guardian of the 'Shrine to Humility,' he basically incarnated the spirit of self-examination, a hermeneutic of suspicion towards oneself and charity towards those one disagree with.

This is why, even though he was genuinely furious with the rakshasa for upsetting his beloved creator, he gave them as merciful an end as he could. It is why he could work raking the nearby mountains to create farming terraces all day, come back and study for several hours in order to assist the projects of the Exalted Ones, and only then allow himself the brief, peerless pleasure of gazing upong his deity for a couple of minutes before returning to work.

Even if his work was tedious or unglamorous, he graciously accepted it as divinely ordained. After all, before the grace of the Exalted Ones, before the gentle glory of his creator, what choice did a simple servant such as himself had, but to gratefully follow after them in reverence of their wisdom and love?

This is how he could feel at home in the seemingly endless space which is the Shrine of Humility.

Designed to resemble an asteroid belt in outer space, it is accessible through teleport platforms at the entrance of the shrine. There, one such as he could feel truly small, gazing upon the infinite greatness of the universe all around.

Of course, the shrine is an airless vacuum, with no gravity, and thus no way to tell up from down or east from west, but it didn't bother Burlaug in the least. A trait of his species was that they each carry their own breathable atmosphere, enough air to last them several months, and their immense, nearly solid bodies were dense enough to be immune to blunt or smashing weapons and generate their own gravity, allowing them to orientate themselves in space.

A peerless giant that happily shrunk itself in order to interact with the rest of Tengoku Junzi, Burlaug.

Guardian of Humility.

~O~

"What do you think, Kallisto?" -Grumnir asked over his mug of ale

"We can do it, of course. I'm only worried about wether we can do it and come back with everyone still whole."

The dark elf had lost her appetite when Albion and Tazar came back and told them about the quest they had just signed everyone up for. Her meal now sat before her, half consumed and cold on the table.

"You know... this may be a good chance to tell you about something I've been pushing back for a few days now. ~fa"

The elegant, elderly but energetic-looking bard of the group spoke while looking at her friends. She appeared to be in her early 50s, and had earned great fame among the patrons of the Red Giant thanks to the amazing sound of the exotic instrument she played almost once a night in exchange for exotic coins or tales from far away places.

Despite her years, her back was straight and her eyes seemed to sparkle with energy and youth. Her hair was of a red so bright it made fire look pale and dull.

"What is it? Don't tell me you are afraif of bugs? You seemed alright with the crawlers and the ankhegs."

"No. Well, its true that I don't like them, but its not to the point of being creeped out by them. I was thinking we could visit my home, if you are interested. ~fa"

Her companions looked at her for a few moments, then at each other.

"I thought you said you wanted to see the world? Did you got homesick all of a sudden?"

Albion looked at her with some worry. He was sure he could fulfill the quest he had signed everyone into without Lyann, but he was also sure they would almost certainly take losses. Besides, he simply didn't want her to leave.

"No. It would probably be just a short visit, and I hope you would all come with me. ~fa"

"What, why?"

"Ah, hold on. [Gift of Silence] ~fa"

She used a spell to create a bubble of silence around them. They couldn't hear the bustle of the common hall, but neither could anyone outside the bubble listen at their conversation.

"What was that for!?" -Kallista, the sorceress of the group, was equal parts surprised and equal parts interested.

"Its a privacy spell. Its really practical when you don't want to wake people up, or when you want to have private conversations. ~fa"

"Couldn't you use it to sneak past guards?"

That was Cathya, the trapmaster of the group. The chestnut-haired girl was normally very quiet, but it genuinely aroused her interest.

"Well, you can't listen to things outside the bubble so you wouldn't know if you triggered an alarm or if they are telling to eachother about you, so... ~fa"

"I see. Too bad."

"Anyway, I was thinking about what Kallisto said to me a while ago. How it took years to learn new spells. ~fa"

"I remember that conversation. At the time, I just thought you were one of those people with a [Talent] for learning spells quickly."

"Well, the tutors in Tengoku Junzi... ah, please try not to appear too excited about this, alright? The spell prevents other from overhearing us, but they can still see us. ~fa"

Lyann advised her friends to remain calm, and then continued.

"Where I come from, there are excellent tutors that use magic to instantly teach you spells and abilities in exchange for gold. I don't know if it would be possible for you guys to learn this way, but do you want to give it a try? The spider extermination quest doesn't has a set duration, right? ~fa"

""""ARE YOU SERIOUS!?""""

Her friends completely lost their cool, and a few people looked in their direction despite the silence barrier.

"Shh! I asked you to remain calm, didn't I? ~fa"

The redhead took a deep breath, and continued.

"It's not really a secret, but the thing is, there's a chance it is impossible for you to learn things the way we do at home. I bought a scroll and have been studying it, but I can't make heads or tails from it, so there's a chance that those used to a learning method can't use the other. ~fa"

"Then, why the secrecy?" -it was Kallisto who asked. Her humor had taken a change for the better in the last minute.

"Well, if it works, that's great. The tutors could use the business, but if it doesn't, wouldn't it be awful to travel across the mountains for nothing? Ah! We won't have to travel that way, though. The ambassador of Tengoku Junzi is returning home every night using a certain spell, so we would be hitching a ride with her. ~fa"

"That winged lady? People think she's a descendant of the Six Gods." -it was Grumnir who spoke.

As a dwarf, he didn't worship the human-centric Six Gods of the Slane Theocracy.

"Well, if I remember right, she has god blood, but there are a lot of gods other than the Six Gods, you know? Anyway, the plan is to go there, stay one day and two nights, then come back. If the tutor method doesn't work, at least you can visit the markets and see the sights. ~fa"

The Wild Riders looked at each other, and then at her while agreeing. Some of them had hopes for the tutors, some wanted to meet the Tengoku Junzi ambassador, and some just wanted to see the now fabled city.

~O~

General Subutai's [Golden Horde] was marching out of Daurgothoth under a rain of flowers and cheers. The army was wearing its best galas, with its flags and pendants fully spread, while the lupinals marched at the front while playing the drums and bagpipies, always gallant, always sporting a too-cocky-by-half smile while leading the army.

Behind them, the equinal soldiers were marching as one, the ground trembling softly in their immediate area as the 7" tall warriors stomped the ground with every step, their giant's strength and heroic fighting style, together with their work rebuilding the walls and buildings damaged by the bestmen, having already made them into a favorite of the crowd.

Behind them, General Subutai was flying slowly, just slightly above ground. He had donned his aviator googles, and showed the figure of a hero in the middle of the army. As they passed under the palace's balcony from where queen Draudillon Oriculus and her ministers, as well as the Tengoku Junzi ambassador, Celi Malefactor were watching the parading troops, he signaled to the army, stopping them all and having them hail towards their hosts.

"In accordance with the _Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security_ signed between our nations, the forces of Tengoku Junzi, having assisted our ally, the Dragonic Kingdom, in the defense of their citizens and lands, are now ready to depart from the capital and head south to subjugate the rakshasa lands. Permission to march through your lands, you highness?"

The general spoke loud and clear, a minor charm carrying his voice across the square so that everyone present could hear.

"Y-yes! Please take care of the evil beastmen for us, general!"

Queen Draudillon would have liked to give a more formal and dignified response, but she was still constrained by her child-like persona, albeit now that the rakshasa were about to disappear, she was finally free to 'begin growing at an amazing speed.'

"With the grace of the Exalted One."

The general waited for Ren to grant her blessing.

"Please eliminate the demons who have for too long plagued this land, Subutai-dono."

Ren words also were heard throughout the square, then the general signaled the army to salute.

Two dozen thousand warriors with the strength of giants stood at attention as one. It created a sound like thunder that was felt throughout the city. The general bowed towards the queen and the ambassador, then signaled the troops to continue their march.

This time, however, the [Golden Horde] was reinforced with troops from the Dragonic Kingdom, that now free from defending the capital, were able to march forth to attack the beastmen for the first time in decades.

As the army paraded before them, the citizens cheered and wished them victory. In the aftermath of Burlaug and the Four Kings attacking their nation repeatedly over the last week, however, the beastmen would be unable to muster even the most token of resistances, however.

~O~

"Indeed, we have found Tengoku Junzi. I am sure you want to hear about it, yes?"

The bishop of Wind spoke calmly. He was still trying to come to terms with it himself. After taking a few deep breaths, he continued.

"Of course, [Clairvoyance] only allows us to see. That is to say, we can't hear what is going on. Doubtlessly the priests in the capital, with the assistance of the Windflower Scripture, will be able to find out more, but for now... I trust you have all meet the ambassador, and won't object to me referring to her as 'her highness,' correct?"

The bishop made a pause, and since nobody objected, he finally began to tell his peers about the city. Honestly, the bishops couldn't object. They had briefly meet with Celi Malefactor, and recalling the encounter, titles such as 'her highness' or, as the lantern archon had referred to her, 'the exalted one' seemed simply appropiate.

"We searched the region Celi Malefactor Denka specified, and indeed, found the city in the middle of a large valley, which does not appear in our maps. There are no actual roads leading to the outside world, and the only route we could find is a pass flanked by cliffs on both sides, full of nesting gryffins. There is no need to explain to you how such a thing would discourage explorers, correct?"

Indeed, as the lion is thought to be the king of all beasts, and the eagle is the king of all birds, the gryphon, or griffin, is considered the king of all animals. Not only are they extremely powerful, they are also pack hunters, and up to a dozen will pounce together on any horse, pegasi, hyppogrif or unicorn they can find.

A rider that simply lets go of his horse and stands aside will probably be ignored, but one that tries to defend his mount will be attacked by the full pride. This automatically discourages travelers from going anywhere near the gryffins hunting grounds, but as if that wasn't enough, the pride never strays too far from its nests, and will fight to the death in order to protect its young.

Since it takes almost 4 years for a gryffin to mature, the chances of any one nest having at least a youth or an egg are extremely high. Plus, all members of a pride tend to nest close to each other, which would make such a mountain passage into the very last place any explorer would want to invesigate, no matter how daring he may be.

"Since it appears that the inhabitants of the city rarely leave, and do so through magic [Portal] on the rare occasion when they do, it probably doesn't bothers them in the least."

His peers around the table nodded, and the bishop continued.

~O~

"Waah! It's so pretty!" - Cathya cried out as she took her first look at the city. She had just crossed the [Gate] the Tengoku Junzi ambassador created a few moments before.

The main streets were wide enough for four carriages to pass each other with no issue, and still leave plenty of room at either side. The roads were split in three, with the outer sections being smooth slobs of white rock, while the middle section was covered in round, carefully cobbled together stones of many colors.

To be honest, Ren had brought up changing the streets to pavement and walkways, but it was decided against for two reasons: First, it just wasn't as charming, and second, in a world without rubber wheels, it was important to provide somewhat rugged roads where hooves and wooden wheels wouldn't slip.

The [Gate] opened in a specially designated platform in the eastern side of the city. A round stone building surrounded by white columns, offering a magnificent view of the city as well as a dry place to arrive to in any weather.

The place for this building had been decided so that it would stand next to the city's main avenue, near the inns and shopping streets, for the convenience of future visitors. The other reason was that it was right in front of the [Silver Pride]'s barracks, adding an extra layer of safety for convenience of the citizens themselves.

In addition, [Over Magic] (Epic Spell, or however you want to call it) has been used to permanently redirect any incoming [Teleport] or [Gate] spells towards this 'arrival' building.

Behind Catha, the rest of the Wild Riders arrived, followed by Celi Malefactor and Lyann.

The city stretched before them. Most buildings were varied in style and shape, but they all shared some common elements. They all had white walls, and they all had red roofs, somehow giving the streets a charming feeling without letting it turn into pure chaos.

There were numerous, black, cast iron lamp posts along the streets, which were already lit since the sun goes down early in this mountain valley. They glow softly with yellow light, a few moths dancing around their globes.

After much discussion, it had been decided to keep the magical street lights, since it would just be a waste of resources to replace them, and the population was already used to them.

And speaking of the population, despite the sun having gone down already, or perhaps because of it, as it marked the end of the work day for those working outside the city, the streets were bustling with people.

~O~

"Non humans. I would say that humans are the most common folk in the city, but at least two thirds of the population are a mix of dozens of other races." -the bishop of wind commented

"How do they keep such a large slave population under control?"

"I do think they are not slaves."

The bishops were quiet for a while after such statement.

~O~

"Oooh, lady Lyann, what kind of folk are those?" -Grumnir asked again.

In this case, it was about a couple where both partners had a human upper body, and a snake lower body. They were both wearing light, tight-fitting clothing, their bodies oozing health while they walked around holding hands.

"Fuuu... I've told you to skip on the 'lady' part, haven't I!? ~sol"

"That's why its worth to use it. So, what people be them?"

"Fuu... those are naga. Very intelligent, strong, very low reproduction rate, extremely communal. They each are their own individual, but they also share a connection to a communal mind they call _Akasha,_ which allows them to speak to their ancestors directly. ~fa"

"Oh! They sound like a very respectable people!"

Indeed, for a dwarf, there's nothing as important as one's clans and ancestors.

"That store clerk is an elf, right? I thought your people avoided settlements like this?" -This time it was Albion, albeit he was talking to Kallisto

"That's not a type of elf I know about, but I feel that yes, it is an elf." -Kallisto sounded slightly confused.

"Ah, well, you know the joke 'eleven flavor of elf' right? ~fa" -upon seeing that Kallisto gave her a look, Lyann continued- "Artic, avariel, dark, drow, eladrin, desert, high, forest, golden, sea and wild elf. There's also minor families and tribes that like to claim they are actual races, but... well, as a human, to me it looks like a blonde and a redhead trying to convince each other that they are the one true human ~fa"

"Hey, hey, Kallisto, does Lyann know more 'bout elves than you do, then!?" -it was Tazar who was gently teashing the dark elf.

"..."

It was at this point that Albion interrupted to defuse the situation.

"But, it's the first time I've seen so many races in one place."

"Variety is the spice of life! ~fa" -Lyann made a cutesy pose, pointing at her cheeks with both hands, while having her elbows point away to either side.

"I need to return to the palace. You should head to a inn and secure rooms before exploring any further." -Ren suggested the Silver Spoon tavern and inn as she prepared to leave them.

"Thank you for having us, lady Malefactor." -Albion bowed, and so did the rest of his group.

"Ne, ne~ someone retort me, ne? ~fa"

"Please send a message when you are ready to go back." -with that, Ren left, opening her wings and taking off towards the palace.

"Come think about it, what are those buildings, Lyann?" -Cathya pointed at several buildings that stood out over the city's skyline.

~O~

"Seven temples rather than six, and what we believe to be a university and a library. Of course, the palace in the center of the city is the largest visible structure, but it is closely followed by the immense university."

"If we assume the first six temples to follow the gods of Wind, Earth, Fire, Earth, Life and Death, to whom is the seventh temple devoted to? That country is too strange! Humans and monsters living together, and perhaps a unknown seventh God!"

"Well, if its rulers are indeed Godkin, wouldn't it be a temple dedicated to their own blood line?"

"Oh! A secret, lost godkin bloodline? If it wasn't built in a secret, lost city in the mountains, I would think the idea to be heretical!"

The bishop of fire said so, causing his peers around the table to nod and agree.

~O~

"That's the university, the library, and the shrines to each of the Seven Virtues. Well, you can't see all the shrines from here, but there's seven in total. Let's see... that's Charity, Chastity, Diligence, and Patience. ~fa"

"You don't follow the Six Gods?" -Kallisto asked while looking at the temple of Chastity in the distance

"The what gods? ~fa"

"I like this place more the more I learn about it." -the dark elf says

"By the way, you can take that fake collar off now. There's no slavery here. ~fa"

"Yup, liking it more by the moment." -Kallisto takes off her collar while talking.

"Let's go to the inn and take a look around. How late do shops close here?"

Albion urged his friends forth, looking at the busy streets.

"In the old days, they never closed, but there's just not as many customers anymore. I'd say we have a couple of hours still, but we should hurry all the same. ~fa"

"What's an hour?"

"A measure of time... uhmm... see that tower with the white disk and the numbers? That's a clock tower. The short arm is pointing to the 7. When it reaches the 9, most stores will close. They work from 9 in the morning to 9 in the night, with a nap break somewhere around 4 ~fa"

~O~

"Oh, they have a clock tower? What would their time difference with the capital be?"

Of course, the bishop of water was talking about the capital of the Slane Theocracy.

"They seem to be 1 hour ahead of us." -answered the bishop of wind

"The Boastful Sage mentioned time zones, if I remember right. The lands closest to sunrise are slightly ahead in time."

This time it was the bishop of water who added to the conversation.

~O~

As it turns out, all of the inn rooms were available, which made sense when you considered that there were no visitors. Still, th common hall was alive and full of people eating delicious-looking meals.

"This has to be the cleanest inn I've ever seen." -Cathya commented as she came back from the bath at the end of the hallway.

"The furniture is quite solid." -adds Kallisto

Indeed, the room the girls had rented together was quite spacious and clean, with solid, heavy furniture meant to last. There were four beds (one of which obviously wouldn't be used), each with its own wardrobe and chest.

"These mirrors are amazing. So much better than the polished metal ones I've seen in the houses of the nobles."

Kallisto comments while getting dressed next to her bed.

"What is that basket for?" -Cathya pointed to the one by the door.

"Isn't that a laundry basket? Place your dirty clothes on it, take it down to the owner and the staff will wash them for you. ~fa"

Lyann had already had a shower, and changed her clothes. She had also returned to her normal, youthful appearance.

"I see! This seems to be a very nice inn. Should we go meet the guys downstairs?" -Cathya finished dressing.

"Hold on, I want to have a bath, too!"

"Hurry up, then."

Once Kallisto had washed and changed her clothes, they headed down to find the guys happily testing the local drinks.

~O~

"More importantly, when looking at the city from above, it became evident that the main streets are placed in such a manner to create a magical formation."

The bishop of wind continued with his report.

"Its purpose?" -asked the bishop of Earth

"Unknown right now."

~O~

"...and the magic circle casts a [Bliss] and [Cure Disease] spells within the city borders at midnight every night. ~fa"

"That's amazing! Does it do anything else?" -Tazar sounded quite impressed.

"That would b ~fa"

"So, which way to those tutors you mentioned?" -asked Albion

"We'd need to reach the university. Since we are so much closer to the merchant district, don't you want to check the stores before they close? The plan was to visit the tutors tomorrow anyway. ~fa"

"Ah! I'd like to visit a brewery and get some of the local liquors, myself!"

They made a pause when a child ran by chased by a large, yellow dog. Lyann smiled when she saw them play, but the rest of her party went into combat mode and she had to stop them from going after the dog.

"What are you doing!? ~sol"

"That's my line, why did you stop us!? That wolf's attacking the kid, no?"

Cathya and everyone else were quite confused, but when the child fell down, the 'wolf' quickly catched up and started licking his face while the kid laughed and hugged it.

"""""What?"""""

"You've never seen a dog? ~fa"

Well, Lyann was surprised as well, but not as much as they were, and for different reasons. She had already noticed that there were no cows, pigs, goats or chickens in the farms she had seen in the Dragonix Kingdom so far, but this is a different world, so it was only to be expected that some animals would never have evolved on it.

The lack of dogs surprised her, though. Weren't wolves fated to be tamed by humans and bred into dogs? There were wolves in this world, so she had assumed there were dogs. True, she hadn't seen any herself yet, but...

"You take a wolf, and teach it to hunt with you. Over time, you breed the aggression out, and encourage loyalty, friendliness and such. In the end, you get a dog. It should take about, say... 7 generations or so? It is said, a dog is man's best friend, you know? ~fa"

Well, in a world full of monsters, it was doubtful just how useful a dog would be, but if they could gain levels, wouldn't it be fine?

Tengoku Junzi was meant to be a city. As such, the players who created it had included more than a few dogs playing with children up and down the streets. Well, it was just as background decoration at the time, something to help the city seem alive and more realistic, but those dogs were now real, living creatures.

"It's a pet ~fa"

"A pet?"

"Yes, a friendly animal that is your friend. Pets are great ~fa"

"Can you eat it?"

"You don't eat dogs! They're a friend, you don't eat your friends! ~sol"

Ah, everyone thought 'she looks cute' at that time. She had a worried face and her hands were curled into fists at either side of her hips, plus, she had a tear hanging from each eye.

"Sorry, sorry. Let's go to the shopping district, then."

"Fuu... alright. Don't kill anything along the way ~fa"

"Yes, yes, we promise."

Soon enough, they arrived at the shopping district. For convenience sake, it was adjacent to the crafter's district.

Of course, even if you wanted to craft dragon leather boots, you would still need [Silk Thread]. If you wanted to cook a roc's egg, you still needed [Salt] and [Oil].

Since both district were adjacent to each other, crafters could go back and forth between them as needed.

Basic goods stores would automatically replenish their goods. It was part of Burlaug and general Li's daily work to oversee the process by which the city itsel charged a perceantage of the sales, and then replenished the store's stock. When asked about it, they had both been unable to explain how it works.

To them, it was as natural a process as breathing, something they didn't even need to think about. If they did devoted their attention to it, however, there was plenty of things they could do, such as rise or lower taxes across the city, adjust the quality of items, or rotate the items themselves.

It was determined that, since there was a tax = quality relationship between the goods offered by the shops, it wasn't possible to simply acquire them infinitely and dump them into the treasure room's Exchange Box. Well, since Celi Malefactor could just use [Fabricate] to mine out resources by thousands of tons, it wasn't really a problem, but it felt like a missed opportunity.

"Oh Gods." -Kallisto sounded as if she was about to moan, her voice taking on a sultry tone her companions had never heard before- "This apple is fantastic."

However, it had no seeds. Neither did the oranges, watermelons or bananas in any of the shops.

If they had tried buying meat, they would have found that the fish and chickens had no internal organs, either.

Speaking of which...

~O~

The Previous Evening

Mako (Doctor's Orders) was flying above one of the recently constructed empty warehouses outside the city, next to the terraces Burlaug had prepared on the sides of the cliffs and mountains surrounding the valley.

It was the end result of the research she had begun almost from the moment her sister, their best friend, and herself, had decided to help their new home world.

In Yggdrassil, it was possible for players to create both NPCs and items. Every single one of their powers and abilities seemed to work properly on this new world, including their ability to craft items in the form of weapons, tools, armors or potions.

Yet the NPC creation windows and menus were unavailable.

Did that meant, that was the sole exception? The greatest difference between Yggdrassil and their new world?

And if it was at present, did it had to stay that way?

It all began with a [Spell Seed]. In order to create [Over Magic] (aka epic spells), you took the literal seed of a spell, a manifestation of your personal power and ability, then began adding 'factors' to it, until it grew and bloomed.

At that time, you had your very own, personalized [Pver Magic].

Each of the 'Exalted Ones' had their own interests outside the game. Lyann liked history and music, which was how she could offer historical insights during their council meetings. Ren liked math and social sciences, which is why she had been largely left in charge of social planning and design.

Mako loved to create. In real life, she was an industrial arts teacher, but on Yggdrassil, her true vocation came forth, as she could create and design a nearly endless number of living things, to the point where almost 1/5 of the many thousand lvl 1 NPCs in Tengoku Junzi had been designed by her.

To be able to use every single feature of Yggdrassil except for her beloved NPC creation... there was no way she was going to take it lying down.

It took nearly all of her time so far, but she had finally done it. She took the first step in the direction she wanted to go. Arguably, it was the true realm of the gods.

"Over Magic [Origin Of Species ~ Corn]"

It was a very simple thing. A very humble thing. It was the first time corn existed in this world. Of course, it was the version she was familiar with, the highly enriched, genetically improved, grown-in-any-weather-or-terrain, super delicious plant she enjoyed with her breakfast every day in 22nd century Japan.

~O~

"It was... those gigantic stairs on the hills and the mountains, about half of them were suddenly covered with a golden plant I am unfamiliar with... well, i'm no farmer, so that's alright, but... it wasn't a summoning spell. The plants came out of nowhere."

The bishop of wind's words were followed by a brief silence, until the bishop of life finally spoke.

"Druids can cause plants to grow, you know?"

"There was no 'growth.' The plants appeared fully grown and ready for harvest. It was a pure act of creation."

He continued to describe how the Godkin took a short break before casting again. The other half of the terrace fields were covered with a strangely small plant. Again, it was a plant he wasn't familiar with.

After a while, it was the animal's turn.

~O~

"Oh, this belt is amazing!"

Tazar was looking at one of the many magic toolshops. Specifically, he was looking at a [Belt of Storing]. This rather unimaginative name clearly announced the function of the belt. In its many pouches, it was able to keep up to seven different types of potions in stacks of up to fifty each, immune to harm in a interdimensional space, and readily available the moment the owner of the belt reached for them.

In many ways, it was similar to a [Bag of Holding] or a [Handy Haversack], but it was specialized in ammunition and potions. No matter how many of these it held, it would always weight as much as a normal belt.

"Hey, come check this out, this shop sells magic weapons!"

Albion was holding a [Flaming Longsword +1]. A lightly enchanted longsword that, on its user mental command, would cover itself in magical flames.

It was a [Lesser] magical item, and on Yggdrassil, every new player would buy it as his first magical weapon. It was so common, that it was sold in NPC shops, and anyone could purchase it without needing to acquire crafting skills or grinding a single type of mob for it.

As long as you had the money, of course.

"For sale at 1100 gold coins... aren't they worried someone will just take it and run?"

"That's what the iron golem is for. ~fa"

"Oh. It's too bad I can't afford it, but now I have something to look forward to. I will definitively come up with the gold." -Albion returned the weapon, with a sigh.

Before his eyes, a immense collection of weapons, armors and shields was just hanging on the walls and laying begind crystal cases. Just because the long sword was the most common weapon, it didn't mean that there weren't other weapons.

To be honest, the [Flaming Longsword +1] counted as a +2 weapon, since the 'flaming' had a magically equivalent value of +1. NPC shops like this carried weapons with a equivalent bonus of up to +4, which meant it sold items of lesser, low, minor and medium class.

Lyann didn't had the heart to tell Albion that the longsword he had fell in love with was one of the lowest tiers of magical weapons on the store.

She thought about it for a while...

"Y-you know, I could probably craft you some weapons and such... ~fa"

'It's fine as long as I use the loot we got together, right?' -such were her thoughts.

"Really? You know how to craft magical tools!?" -her party members looked at her with awe.

"Yes, well, it would cost about ½ as much as buying them, so it's still not free. We came to see the tutors, though, so let's do that first tomorrow, and if it doesn't work, we can pool our money to buy materials and rent a forge, then I'll try and make some stuff, alright? ~fa"

'We got a lot of ankheg shells. I can use those to make some armors. For weapons, I could just improve and enchant the ones they have right now. Ah, won't we look like kamen heroes if we all wear insect-shaped armors, though? It's fine, isn't it? People don't know about that here. Ah, but I can't let Ren hear about this or she'll never let me live it down.'

But what truly captivated the Wild Riders, were the stables.

"What are these...?" -Grimnir looked at the mounts in awe.

There were panthers, sabertooth tigers, lions, zebras, armored bears, velociraptors, and countless other creatures the Wild Riders had never seen or heard of, let alone imagined to ride.

"Ah, these are magical mounts. You buy a figurine, then you can summon and unsummon your mount at will. Some people live to collect them... ~fa"

"Lyann. I'm going to be extremely serious about this." -Cathya grabbed her shoulders and looked her straight in the eye- "Do you have one of those?"

"Y-yes...? ~fa"

Her friends swarmed her. In the end, they wouldn't let her go until she showed it to them. Grimnir even had her on a chokehold from behind.

Of course, he wasn't really chocking her, they were just playing with her. But they did manage to get what they wanted out of her.

Lyann summoned a large, tiger-stripped armored bear. She had almost a dozen other mounts, but she really thought it would be a bad idea to bring out some of the more exotic ones.

"Wha-!? You had such a thing!? Is it dangerous?"

"It shouldn't be ~fa"

"Why didn't you use it before?"

"Noone else had a mount, so I felt it would have been rude to ride while everyone else walks. ~fa"

"Right, right... how much does this one cost?"

"About 600 gold. ~fa"

"Alright, we have to earn gold and get one each!"

They were all extremely pumped and excited when they made their way back to the inn. They still had to try the local food, and the girls hadn't tried the local drinks.

~O~

"So, corn, strawberries, rabbits, and cows. Dare I ask why? ~fa"

Lyann had sneaked out of the inn to attend the council meeting, as usual.

Mako nodded.

"I told the children about cornflakes. They want to try a modern breakfast." - Said Mako with her brightest smile.

"You are the only person ever to have strawberries with her cornflakes." -sighed Ren

"Ara? Isn't that strange? I'm sure there's strawberries in the box illustration."

"That's just advertising! ~sol"

"Well, it's fine, isn't it? Strawberries are delish!"

Both Lyann and Ren sighed as one.

"And the animals? ~fa"

But when they heard Mako's answer, they facepalmed.

"Petting zoo." -Mako said with a refreshing smile.

~O~

"Mako-sama, Ren-sama and Lyann-sama took you seriously, you know?" -Burlaug was walking next to Mako on their way to the throne room.

"Ah, that's fine, those girls need a good shake from time to time. More importantly, this confirms my theories. I can't grant class levels to unintelligent beings, but I can give them different starting strengths, or racial levels, if you prefer."

"Indeed, Mako-sama."

Corn – lvl 2 plant

Strawberry – lvl 1 plant

Chicken – level 1 animal

Rabbit – level 1 animal

Cow – level 3 animal

"What now, Mako-sama?"

Burlaug stopped at the feet of the Throne of Joy, and knelt in place as Mako ascended to the throne itself

"Casting [Origin of Species] takes the same time and has the same experience cost regardless of the creature being created. Development time, and experience sost, however, is affected by the creature's desired base stats."

She turned around and sat on the throne, crossing her legs and reaching forth to grab some of the exp-giving ambrosia that the throne so readily provided.

"Now that we know it can be done, I can get started working on sapient creatures."

"Yes, Mako-sama."

"Burlaug-kun, you know you don't need to kneel. No, rather, you know I dislike it, don't you?"

"I apologize, Mako-sama."

"Hnn... don't just apologize, stop kneeling, please." -she said with a gentle, slightly whining tone.

"I apologize, Mako-sama."

"Uhh... am I being bullied? Is this bullying?"

"Of course not, Mako-sama."

There was no way Burlaug could stand. Out of nowhere and seemingly on a whim, she had created life not half a day ago. Not artificial and sterile things like the seedless fruits that pop up on the shopping district stalls, nor temporal creatures such as those summoned with magic. She hadn't brought them over from anywhere else via [Gate] or similar spells. Her creations were breathing, breeding, growing living beings.

'She can deny it as much as she wants, but what else could one such as Mako-sama be, but a God?'

Such were his thoughts. And very few would be able to argue the point.

~O~

Author Notes: This one ended up being way longer than intended. Sorry about that, but I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

[1] I recommend you watch this video, it's really nice. Click HERE

[2] This one too. It's a really nice video. Click HERE

[3] For a quick link to colossus stats, click HERE


	9. Chapter 8 - Worker's Day

Chapter 8 _~ Worker's Day_

 _"_ _Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." - Confucius_

 _Mare stopped the wagon and stood up to look at the Death Knights behind him as they placed the last stone plate in place. With this, the 'highway' within the Sorcerous Kingdom of Nazarick is now complete, connecting all towns within the realm to E-Rantel._

 _'Ah! Is it slightly crooked?' ~ the young elf jumped down to the ground and, after using a low level [Floating Disk] spell to make sure he had a perfectly level surface, placed a total station on top of it, checking the road for a few minutes._

 _No, it was a perfectly straight line. There was no problem. Of course, he would have had the Death Knights pick the stone plates up and laid them back down if it had indeed been even a little bit crooked._

 _There was no way he would dare offer anything but the best work to the Supreme Being he so admired._

 _"_ _Alright!" ~ he smiled and stored away the total station, folded down its tripod, and patted the two steel horses as he prepared for lunch._

 _Spreading a blanket with red and white squares over the grass, he sat down and pulled out several sandwiches, two apples, and an orange juice bottle as he sat down. He looked at the Death Knights, but they shook their heads._

 _They didn't need lunch, after all, but as creations of Ainz, Mare still treated them very politely._

 _~O~_

It had been several months since the last battle of Carne Village, and the arrival of the goblin army. Since then, and after the news of E-Rantel's surrender to Nazarick, Jurgem and his kin had found themselves with a new job.

Acting as the 'police' of the new Sorcerous Kingdom of Nazarick meant dealing with monsters and bandits, watching over the population, and patrolling the fledging country's roads regularly.

Right now, Jugem was leading one such patrol. It was a group consisting of both his original comrades and the newcomers, bringing their numbers up to 30. It wasn't a particularly large amount of troops, considering the overall size of the goblin army, but it was more than enough to achieve mobility and efficiency.

In the last three months, they had been quite busy, hunting the inevitable bandits that came out of the Re-Estize kingdom's defeated army. The group he and his goblins had been hunting for a week now was just one such group.

Jugem signaled the archers, and a brief shower of arrows fell unto the brigands campsite.

"Agh!"

"Who!?"

The brigands used to be part of the Re-Estize army, but to call them soldiers was to wildly stretch and abuse the word.

They were former conscripts, peasants who, after running from the massacre site, couldn't go back to their original towns or villages, nor could they go into anywhere else in the kingdom because they were now deserters, so they really didn't had any other choice but brigandry to survive.

Well, they could have tried to cross the Kadzu plains unto the Dragonic Kingdom, but even assuming they survived the hellish plains, rumors suggested that the Dragonic Kingdom was experiencing a dire crisis because of attacking beastmen.

They couldn't go to the Empire without being captured as enemy soldiers and, at best, enslaved. And the Theocracy wouldn't accept them unless they had some special talent or skill, which they did not.

Thus, they had been forced into crime, been harassing the local villages, and were tracked by Jurgem, who was more than happy to protect the people in Enri's name.

"Now, take them!" _~ Jugem commanded the troops, and they charged the bandits from two directions._

 _Soon, all the bandits had been captured or killed._

 _~O~_

Shizu wandered about, looking at the merchant's stockade while Yuri and Nabel paid for the diamond shipment they had come to collect.

Ainz had confirmed, to his great joy, that indeed, diamonds were successfully converted into gold coins with a rate based on Yggdrassil prices. This meant that Nazarick's upkeep troubles were gone, and the Great Tomb could once again run all of its systems at maximum efficiency.

As happy a discovery as that had been, he had enough of a cool head to think about securing diamonds by means other than the Dwarven Kingdom, and so Yuri and her 'little sisters' had been tasked with asking the merchants in E-Rantel for diamonds, studying the size, price and quality of the 'worthless' rocks from different areas of the region.

Ainz didn't held great hopes for such sources, however, since the dwarven king had been more than generous in his deal with him. Finding a better supplier would be nearly impossible, but he felt the need to at least check.

As Shizu moved around, she noticed a reinforced wagon going into the stockade, surrounded by a large group of mercenaries. Behind it were similar wagons.

One of the local merchants, a man well dressed in silk and cotton, well shaved and with a black berett immediately cheered up and headed towards the newly arrived group.

"Makaiel, is that you!?" _~ the well shaved merchant called_

 _"_ _Yes father! The war is finally over, so I could make the trip back." ~ a younger man called back, walking over from among the mercenaries, dressed in a high quality but worn travel outfit, with a long white overcoat and hood over it._

 _"_ _Obviously, the beastmen were repelled, or you would have ended as their soup, right?"_

 _"_ _Yes, it was no less than a miracle, in many ways. I'll tell you all about it later, but for now, look at this!"_

 _Makaiel opened a small bag hanging from his waist, and handed the older merchant a shiny coin. The man's eyes were smiling as he took the coin, but his expression immediately switched to a questioning one._

 _"_ _Did the Dragonix Kingdom join us under Nazarick's control?"_

 _Makaiel shook his head._

 _"_ _I haven't heard of Nazarick. is a long history, but this coin comes from Tengoku Junzi. As for the coin itself, you can see that it is slightly larger and thicker than the average coin, but what's truly exceptional is, it is pure gold and- oh!"_

 _Makaiel's father was holding a similar gold coin before his son's eyes. No, rather, they were identical down to the last detaul. They were the same size, weight, and had the same beautiful woman's face imprinted on them._

 _"_ _Eh?"_

 _"_ _Uh?"_

 _"_ _Uwaah~"_

 _Shizu had walked over at some point, and was looking at both coins with great interest._

 _Ever since they arrived on this new world, Ainz had been looking for his friends, the missing Supreme Beings. This was the first good, solid lead they had seen so far._

 _~O~_

Albedo charged through the hallways ahead of Pandora's Actor. The castle was dusty but otherwise seemed to be more or less intact. She was looking at it with sharp, beast-like, predatorial eyes.

It was the eyes of a young wife examining her first house before agreeing to the mortgage agent's price.

"Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest... "

Everything had to be examined, everything had to be thoroughly measured and triple-checked!

"It looks rather solid and in good condition. The floor has ivory plates, ah, one is broken!" _~ Pandora's Actor noticed as he chased after Albedo._

 _"_ _Wh-who was it that dared make a mess in the love nest for Ainz~sama and I!? I'll rip their bones out without killing them, stuck a [Ring of Regeneration] in their fingers, wait until their bones grow back wrong, and force them to dance for Ainz-sama's amusement!"_

 _"_ _Uhmm... I wonder if a [Mend] spell could fix it?"_

 _"_ _Ah! I'll ask Titus Annaeus Secundus for a rack of [Mend] scrolls to fix everything, then."_

 _They stopped briefly to discuss about the broken floor plate, then continued forth._

 _The hallway opened up unto a large collapsed area. As if a bomb had gone off, a huge circular space had been clearly cut in the middle of the castle, leaving plenty of rooms exposed. It was like looking at an ant farm where you could see inside every single chamber._

 _"_ _Albedo, calm down! Albedo!"_

 _"_ _Blagr ughs agh blllr...!" ~ she was trembling in place, making unintelligible noises._

 _At the bottom of the huge 'chamber' there was a pile of gold and treasure, and over it, an enormous dragon._

 _Albedo was looking down at the Platinum dragon while holding from one of the broken walls. Her thin, delicate fingers squeezed and grinded the stone to dust, leaving clear marks on the wall as if it had been warm butter._

 _Otherwise, she was perfectly still. Albedo had calmed down, and was looking at the dragon as if she was a young wife who had just found a huge cockroach on the floor of her brand new kitchen as she was cooking for her beloved husband while wearing a naked apron._

 _The Platinum Dragon Lord felt a shiver running up and down his spine. He quickly lifted his head and looked up at the strangers high above him._

 _~O~_

 _Mare held his cup with both hands as he sipped from it. A big gulp, followed by a big a sigh. His ears wiggled slightly and he lowered his cup while smiling with his eyes closed._

 _Well, he wasn't very sure about why it was important, but Demiurge had told him that, according to his investigation, it was apparent that working men were supposed to let out a big sigh once they were done with a drink after work._

 _Since the highway was complete now, it seemed like the right time for it._

 _He began placing things back on his pic nic basket, and moved towards the carriage after picking up the red and white blanket. Now that the road was done, he was going to head over to the villages and bless their fields before finally returning to Nazarick._

 _He reached into his [Inventory] and fetched a map, unfolded it and began looking for the best route for this. Since he was near the northern edge of the country, he decided to head east, then south, and finally west and north again, completing a circle before returning home._

 _'What should I do about the Death Knights?' ~ now that the road was completed, he had no need for them, but neither did he had any instructions on what to do with them._

 _After thinking about it for a bit, he decided to send a [Message] to Shalltear, and ask her for a [Gate] to send the Death Knights through._

 _'Yes, it wouldn't be right to force them to stay with me, after all.' ~ Mare thought of them as fellow citizens of Nazarick, rather than disposable summons or cannon fodder, so sending them home after their good work was the right thing to do._

 _"_ _Thank you for your hard work." ~ he said to them as they began to enter through the [Gate] ~ "Please feel free to relax and enjoy a nice bath once you are home."_

 _Mare bowed as they walked through the [Gate]. Once they were gone, he straightened up, climbed back into the now empty carriage, and began moving towards the first village on his list._

 _Freed of its heavy cargo, the iron horse easily trotted down the road as if the wagon wasn't even there._

 _~O~_

 _"_ _Jugem-dono!" ~ one of his goblin called out to him after checking the bodies.~ "We found the stolen goods. They're close by, loaded in a large wagon."_

 _'I wonder if they ran away with one of the kingdom's supply wagons?' ~ Jugem nodded at his underling, and asked to be led there._

 _The golbin paladin noddes, and walking besides his white wolf (it would have been rude to ride while his superior walked, after all), guided Jugem to the hidden wagon._

 _Well, hidden was a strong word, it was simply placed in an area with thicker vegetation than its surroundings, and the horses that would normally pull from it where tied with a long rope so they could graze in the area._

 _"_ _I see, it does look like an army wagon."_

 _"_ _Indeed, but we found some prisoners."_

 _"_ _Oh? Let's see them."_

 _Since the deserters had become bandits, it could only mean one thing, and sure enough, it was three young women, barely any older than Enri, whom Jugem thought of as his master. They had been abused in a constant manner, and were quite weak, but thenkfully unhurt._

 _The girls were sitting next to each other, looking at the goblins with as much fear as they would have looked at their captors. They had refused to touch the food the goblin paladins had offered them, but had at least taken the blankets to wrap themselves with them._

 _"_ _Can any of you tell me if you are from the area?" ~ Jugem had low expectatives of such. Any local peasant would already be familiarized with the goblin troops by now, so they wouldn't have reacted with such distrust._

 _The girls looked at him for a while, but none spoke._

 _"_ _Let's try something else. One of you go to the nearest village and ask for their elder to send some people back with you."_

 _"_ _Yes sir!"_

 _The paladin answered promptly, jumped unto his wolf's back, and rode off in a moment._

 _"_ _I assure you, you are safe now." ~ Jugem sighed. He was used to people either being friendly or openly hostile. The villagers had already grown used to the goblin patrols, so the chance these girls were from elsewhere were quite high._

 _When the paladin came back with some human villagers, the girls finally broke down their silence and started crying in the arms of the men. They didn't want to board the wagon again, which was understandable, so they were gently and slowly led back to the village._

 _Jugem wondered if they would recover, but the chances for it were rather good._

 _'I am sure big sis Enri will want to check on them herself, even if she has to come all the way from Carne for it." ~ with a smile, he nodded, then called for his troop and began the return to town._

 _~O~_

 _Yuri noticed Shizu excitedly talking with the merchants in the corner of the stockade's plaza (well, as excitedly as Shizu was likely to), and couldn't help but feel curious enough to approach._

 _"_ _Shizu, please do not bother the gentlemen in their work." ~ she said once she was next to them._

 _Makaiel felt as if his heart had been pulled out through his mouth. First, an adorable, doll-like beauty with red-gold hair shows up, quietly standing next to his father and himself while looking at them, and now a smart-looking beauty had approached them, immediately capturing his heart._

 _"_ _Ah, Yuri-san, she's no bother at all." - Malakiel's father says._

 _Since his son cleared his throat insistently and looked at him as if begging for air, the older man smiled and introduced them._

 _"_ _Miss Yuri, please allow me to introduce you, this is my oldest son, Malakiel." ~ he gestured to his son with both hands._

 _"_ _It is a pleasure to meet you." ~she said instantly towards the young man~ "I am Yuri, and this is Shizu. Please treat us kindly."_

 _"_ _YES!" ~Malakiel basically squeals out the word, then clears his throat with a deep blush and answers again~ "Yes, of course! It is a pleasure to meet you, miss Yuri. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance!" ~the young Malakiel replied while standing as straight and stiff as a tree._

 _Shizu lifted both hands before her and leaned 25° to the right, then emphasized her "Uwaah" for emphasis._

 _"_ _What is it, Shizu?" ~Yuri looked at her_

 _"_ _Gold coin."_

 _"_ _?"_

 _Yuri looked at the coinss the youngest was pointing at._

 _"_ _What about them?"_

 _"_ _Not from Nazarick." ~replied the blonde automaton, and added another "Uwaaah" for emphasis._

 _"_ _Ah! Yes! My father and I were talking about it, although I myself am not sure on the story behind it." ~Malakiel added, squeezing his brains for a way to carry on conversation with the black haired beauty._

 _She was just a thumb shorter than him, and despite knowing her for less than five minutes, he already knew there was no better girl in the world for him._

 _"_ _My son has just returned from the Dragonic Kingdom, south of the Kadzu plains." ~Explained Radu, Malakiel's father~ "And he has brought back several such coins. We were just talking about them."_

 _Yuri nodded, immediately interested._

 _"_ _Could you tell me about your trips, Malakiel-dono?" ~she asked politely_

 _"_ _YES!" ~he answered while blushing a brighter shade of red~ "Please let me do so!"_

 _"_ _Perhaps over a meal? Since you've just come back, why don't you go have a meal and then you can tell miss Yuri all about it while sitting down?" ~Radu looked at Yuri~ "Would that be fine?"_

 _"_ _Of course, if Malakiel-dono has just returned from a trip, he is likely to wish for rest, after all._

 _Malakiel could feel his father's gentle support there and then. He had been rather worried when he got sent south to a kingdom at war, through a undead-infested land, but right now, he had never felt so grateful in his life._

 _~O~_

 _"_ _[Wall of Jericho]!" ~ Albedo braced her shield as the breath of the Platinum dragon blasted against her. A cone inside the AoE attack was created spreading backwards from Albedo, large enough for Pandora's Actor to stand within._

 _"_ _It seems to be more impressive than we had thought!" ~ The doppelganger commented while leaning slightly and holding how his hat._

 _"_ _Less talking and more blasting!" ~ called out Albedo_

 _"_ _Jawohl herr kommandant!"_

 _Quickly, Pandora's Actor appearance shifted and changed. He grew slightly taller, and his face lenghtened. Two massive, sharp round golden horns grew on the sides of his head while it took on the shape of a grey goat's. His clothes changed from his military uniform into a black suit and a velvet cloak._

 _A rose seemed to bloom on his left shoulder, and a golden mask stretched over hald his face as he took on the appearance and powers of Ulber Alain Odie, Demiurge's creator and reputably the Supreme Being with the highest firepower in Nazarick._

 _"_ _Fall down, rain of tears! Boil away, reign of chaos, let those who oppose us cry and despair, [Grand Catastrophe]!" ~ the speech was technically unnecessary, but according to Ainz's notes, Ulbert had said it was "the most important part" of chanting the spell._

 _Ulbert's mana would have been consumed by a whooping 60% by that spell alone, but unlike him, Pandora's Actor wasn't a pure caster. He was strong, but his strength was evenly distributed so that he would be able to transform and take advantage of the special abilities of a vast array of individuals. As such, it consumed over 90% of his MP!_

 _A massivem almost solid blow of negative energy fell down on the Platinum Dragon Lord almost like a physical blow, peeling and ripping away its lustrous scales, causing its flesh to boil and ropt, and whithering away one of its eyes._

 _It was Ulbert's trump card, the final blow of he who had been hailed as the highest DPS in Nazarick!_

 _"_ _Waaagh! Arrgh! Whhh...-!" ~ the massive dragon twisted in pain, and began puking power out of its jaws, trying to cover the entire area with its breath weapon without caring what it hit._

 _"_ _We have to create space, mein kommandant! Let's retreat and activate Rubedo!" ~ The doppelganger called out while waves of golden power washed against Albedo, distorting the shape of her shield like a plastic toy in the fire, and peeling away the first two layers of her armor!_

 _"_ _No! I'll buy you time, so start activating her now!"_

 _The pure white succubus cried out and leaped down against the Platinum dragon!_

 _~O~_

 _The villagers stopped their daily activities to look at Mare as he rode the wagon into their village, but the cute, petite dark elf 'girl' was more a target of curiosity than a symbol of fear. Soon, he stopped the wagon and asked for the village elder, finding out the man was out on the fields._

 _"_ _That works out for the best, thank you!" ~ he thanked the children who informed him of it, and headed out towards the field while holding down his skirt with one hand and his cane in the other, the children running behind him._

 _The elder, along with many other grownups, were busy working on the fields. Well, saying 'grownups' was a bit misleading, since children older than 9 were also participating in the village's daily tasks, both in the fields and elsewhere._

 _After all, it was normal for children to begin helping their parents as soon as they were old enough to understand the world around them. If you could ask for more bread, you could help in the wheat fields and make it happen by yourself. Besides, the feudal lord would typically take the lion's share of the crops._

 _To be honest, there wasn't much difference between a bandit and a typical feudal lord. They both used strength to take what they wanted from the population, with the only real difference, if even that, being that the feudal lord understoof he couldn't expect to rob dead peasants, so he typically offered at least a token protection, by sending soldiers after roaming bandits. Sometimes._

 _Not only that. That typical lord would leave the peasants with barely enough to survive, forcing them to lie and cheat when it came time to pay taxes, which in turn lead the lords to assume all the peasants would lie and cheat, so they in turn raised taxes... it was a vicious circle of misery and despair._

 _However, their new lord was a different story. Was it because the undead don't eat? An attempt to earn the love of his subjects? Honestly, it was simply Suzuki Satoru, as a modern japan salaryman, had a very different opinion about taxes, and perhaps more relevant in this case, a very poor impression about black companies, businesses that would explout their workers almost literally to death._

 _Thus, when he took over the city of E-Rantel, the territory adjacent, and all the villages on it, one of the first things he did was to change that system. Not just the merchants were benefiting from lower taxes, but the peasantry as well, going from keeping one out of every twn sacks of food, to a full half of their harvest._

 _With so many dead during the slaughter of Katze plains, there were not enough hands, and so Ainz had dispatched small groups of intelligent NPCs, followed by scores of lesser undead such as skeletons and the like, to help with the harvest, yielding a massive bounty in relation to the now very diminished population in the region._

 _Furthermore, while one such as Satoru Suzuki would normally know nearly nothing about farming, his hobbies were more than enough for him to have had access to the rather common trope of interworld travellers and reincarnators that had become a genre of entertainment as common as power levels or power creep, so he was familiar with ideas such as crop rotation and the stablishment of assembly lines._

 _It was not a fond memory at all. After all, his mother had literally worked herself to death in a factory._

 _All the same, rotating crops allowed the farmers to use their fields around the year, and it was to support such an endeavor that Mare was visiting the villages now._

 _"_ _...and so, Ainz-sama has sent me to bless your fields." ~ explained Mare, looking up at the village elder as the old woman listened to him._

 _"_ _How splendid. Please go ahead then, Mare-dono."_

 _"_ _Leave it to me!"_

 _Mare readied himself, and used several (from his point of view) low level spells to ready the area towards a bountiful harvest._

 _[Control Weather] assured a pleasant season_

 _[Plant Growth - Enrichment] blessed the fields and guaranteed that plants within a 1 mile radius would grow healthy and bountiful, yielding a 33% more food when harvest season arrived._

 _[Animal Growth] caused its targets, the village oxen and horses, to double in size and strength for several hours._

 _The animals would even gain an amazing damage reduction effect which pretty much made them immune to non-magical weapons for the spell duration, but of course this would be useless to the farmers._

 _However, it was more than enough to make fieldwork a breeze. A gigantic ox or horse could pull a plough as if it was a toy, and the work could of hours could be finished in a few minutes._

 _Once his work was done, Mare prepared to leave, but the village elder insisted he waited for a bit so they could properly thank him._

 _That is how, that night Mare was the guest of honor in a small celebration, and in the morning, he left with several baskets full of apples in his wagon, as well as other gifts from the thankful farmers._

 _By the way, he also used [Ironwood] to permanently make their wooden wagons as hard as wrought iron, making it nearly impossible for them to suffer a broken axis or wheel. It also helped in the warehouse and granary, making it unlikely that any rodent or other vermin would be able to chew their way into the food storage._

 _Indeed, if a rat was able to chew threough iron, it was no longer a rat, but a monster you would need to call an adventurer party to have it dealt with._

 _~O~_

 _Jugem and his troop arrived at the village, and went straigh to talk with the local elder. Their presence caused the villagers to have mixed feelings, since they had been attacked by monsters in the pasts, but the goblin troops were now famous for taking down bandits and 'wild monsters' to keep the peace in the country._

 _It was a new way of thinking. It wasn't just monsters anymore. They were less of a beast-like existence, and had slowly shifted towards wild or civilized monsters. Or rather, non human citizens._

 _When Ainz heard about this shift in the population's change, he couldnt keeo from showing his good mood. Since it wasn't to a degree where his body triggered and restrained his emotions, it lasted for a good while, and the guardians took note of it. That was why almost every member of the goblin troop's 'police' now had high quality gear._

 _"_ _Ah, captain" ~ the elder didn't know Jugem by name, but the leader of each goblin patrol was always referred to as "captain."~ "Thank you for taking care of those bandits, was any of your troops wounded?"_

 _The elder had wanted to ask "were any of your men wounded?" but decided not to for risk of offencing them. It was strange to have to think of new and proper ways to talk to creatures he would never have have expected to meet outside of a violent encounter._

 _"_ _No, everyone is well, thank you. We recovered the stolen supplies, and freed some captives. They should have arrived already." ~ Jugem was referring to the girls that were sent ahead to the village_

 _"_ _Yes, they are being taken care of. They're not from the region, so what will happen to them?"_

 _"_ _I do not know. I will need to send a message to big sister Enri and ask for instructions."_

 _"_ _Is that so? Well, there's no problem if they stay for several days." ~ the elder said right away_

 _"_ _That will be extremely useful. Thank you."_

 _After that, they talked about the obvious increase in bandit activity immediately after the battle at Katsu plains, and its quick decrease once the goblins were turned into a police force, roaming over the region in the form of patrols and scout bands._

 _They had also greatly decreased the number of wild monsters, further increasing the security of the region. It was to the point that low level adventurers were having trouble since the merchant's requests for escort services, as well as the frequency of low risk gathering quests had decreased almost unto nothing._

 _Since the roads were so safe, merchants felt no need for bodyguards, and since the open plains as well as the smallest woodlands had been cleaned of monsters, herbalists and alchemists could now gather herbs themselves._

 _They decided that the village would keep the bandit's wagon as a form of payment for their misdeeds, and once Enri said to take the girls back to Carne village, Jugem reported it to the elder, who seemed rather relieved to hear so._

 _Well, there was a big possibility that the girls had been part of the train of civilian helpers that traditionally accompanied human armies. In other words, prostitutes. If that was the case, it was almost guaranteed that they wouldn't have any skills that would be useful to the village, and the elder was too busy to basically receive half a dozen grown-up-crooked daughters._

 _With a bittersweet smile, the old man nodded and thankked Jugem._

 _The goblin nodded, feeling relieves himself. In his mind, there was no safest place than near his master, and the girls wouldnt be truly 'rescued' until they were delivered to her._

 _Once he was out of the elder's home, he straightened his back, took a deep breath, and let out a big sigh through smiling lips._

 _~O~_

 _Narberal, or Nabe as she was known by the people of E-Rantel, was walking into Momon's home in the city, carrying the mineral samples the tro had been sent to get. Momon was absent right now, having teleported back to the dwarven kingdom, so she immediately reported to Sebas through a [Message]. Since the butler was her direct superior._

 _"_ _[Message]" ~ She used a scroll and contacted him telepathically._

 _'Sebas-sama, I am reporting as scheduled.' ~ she sent through their mind link_

 _'Ah, Narberal, please proceed.'_

 _'We picked up the diamond samples Ainz-sama desired. As he expected, they were much cheaper than iron ore.'_

 _'Alright. He is currently in the dwarven kingdom. It seems he has found am acquaintance as the king there, but you probably heard about it from Yuri or Ainz-sama himself.'_

 _Honestly, Ainz had excitedly spoken of it, first to Yuri, who had gone to the dwarven kingdom with him, and then to Aura, since [Message] was one of the spells in her repertoire as a high level priest, and therefore she could later repeat the news to the rest of the guardians._

 _When Narberal heard about it from Yuri, she had been initially excited, but when it turned out that it was not a Supreme Being, but a_ _different yet similar existence, she had lost interest._

 _Still, for Ainz it had been a great happening, and he planned in making a formal announcement in the throne room of Nazarick later, once everyone's missions allowed for a overlapping window of oppoetunity, so that all guardians were present._

 _'I believe so.'_

 _'I see... anything else?' ~ Sebas added after Narberal somewhat indifferent attitude._

 _Well, it couldn't be helped, if it wasn't a Supreme Being or a citizen of Nazarick, most of their compatriots shared Narberal disinterested attitude at best, and were downright hostile, at worst._

 _'Yuri nee-sama has accepted a dinner invitation from a human merchant, and together with CZ, agreed to go to his home.'_

 _'Why?' ~ Sebas somehow doubted that the serious Yuri Alpha had done so for no reason at all._

 _'Gold.'_

 _"_ _Uh!?" ~ Sebas caught himself saying rather than thinking it, and then asked Narberal for further details._

 _As the details became clearer, Sebas understood. Was it possible that they had finally found a clue as to the location of another Supreme Being? While hoping for such was perhaps too much, it was obvious that more information was necessary on the matter._

 _~O~_

 _The Platinum Dragon looked up through the haze of pain, and saw Albedo falling down on him. Her shield was gone. It had melted into a useless, twisted thing that couldn't even be held properly. Two of her armor's layers had faded away._

 _"_ _What!?" ~ he didn't had the time to be surprised as Albedo fell on his face!_

 _It wasn't really a fall. With her wings now unobstructed by (most of) her armor, it was more of a dive bomb. She swung her axe, taking advantage of the inertia of the fall, and sunk it deeply right between the eyes of the dragon!_

 _"_ _RAAAAGH YOU WENCH!"_

 _It cracked his skull neatly, spraying blood over her, covering her in red. She immediately kicked down to retrieve her axe, but before she had time for a second swing, the Platinum Dragon shook his head and tossed her against a pile of weapons._

 _They were now fighting right on top of the Eight Greed Kings' treasure, full of enchanted weapons and other items._

 _Albedo stood up, gold coins and jewelry cascading off her curves as she tried to steady herself in the treasure pile, but the coins slipped over each other whenever she tried to move, and she tumbled downwards under her own weight._

 _With his massive weight and size, the dragon had no such problem, and quickly swung its right claw against her, causing her to bounce against the ruins of the castle lower levels, and fall back down unto the coins._

 _Now that her hp was critical, her armor had completely dissapeared. She felt like complaining to her creator about how it made no sense to leave her helpless when she needed her gear the most, but Tabula Smaragdina was a devoted fan of gap-moe._

 _Now that her armor was gone and her life was in danger, she automatically began a transformation into her 'battle form,' growing in size and strenght, her body twisting in almost all directions at the same time as she grew taller and thicker, her beautiful face twisting into that of a demonic gorilla monstrosity, a 12" tall demonic monstrosity._

 _The only thing that hadn't changed size were her wings, that now rested near the top of her back, and seemed completely, ridiculously all too small to bear her weight in the air._

 _It was such a terrible transformation that the Platinum Dragon forgot about attacking for a moment, and that was when Albedo charged forth again. Her wings, which should have been all too small for it, propelled her like a missile against her enemy, and she began a fight of tooth and claw against her opponent._

 _However, it had been designed to be a final surprise rather than a triumph card, and the dragon managed to keep the advantage at all times._

 _"_ _Activation confirmed, all systems nominal."[1] ~ a synthetic female voice could be heard from above._

 _"_ _Albedo, take cover!" ~ this time, it was Pandora's Actor, sounding genuinely worried._

 _Albedo ran towards a corner of the room and curled up inside her [Prismatic Sphere] as Rubedo commenced her attack. But, would it be enough to save her?_

 _~O~_

 _Author Notes_

 _[1] In one of the specials, it was revealed that Albedo can summon her own personal mount, a bucorn, and that her armor was designed to peel away as she received damage, falling off by layers/sections and leaving her increasingly exposed. Honestly I am not surprised at all, taking in consideration that her creator was a huge fan of "gap moe", where two very different things were breached and welded together. Just as Albedo's mount can only be rode on by non-virgins, she herself is one. Just as her normal armor is extremely sensible and covers her from head to toe, so as she takes damage it fades away in a Queen's Blade-like manner._

 _I honestly had believed that the author would release the 10_ _th_ _volume by now, so I delayed publishing this chapter until I could get more info through it. For example, we know that Rubedo wears a kimono, but also that Ainz had to do a test to see if she could be 'activated,' so there's a big chance that she's an automaton like Shizu. The thing is, we don't know, so I had to change this chapter to keep her off camera a little bit more, and hope volume 10 comes out before I need to post the next Nazarick chapter, though I genuinely doubt it._

 _If we still don't have more info by then, I will go with something like this for her. watch?v=IN5KR_PJZqk Based off a japanese ceramic doll + automaton. Plus Xenosaga, because I really like Kos-mos._

 _And it seems everyone else is going with "Rubedo = little girl."_


	10. Chapter 9 Part I - Wandering Kings

Chapter 9

"The really dangerous people believes they are doing whatever they are doing solely and only because it is without question the right thing to do. And that is what makes them dangerous." - Neil Gaiman, American Gods.

Part I

Mako's wings were gently spreading and contracting as she hummed while having tea and cake in the wide balcony outside her room. The day was bright and warm, and the sunlight felt ticklish on her wings. The chair's back was quite short, as it was more comfortable for her wings that way, but it had a large, soft pillow which nicely fit against the small of her back, making her feel quite comfortable and supported all the same.

She was wearing a simple, plain long summer dress with spaghetti straps, and soft cuddly sandals made of wood with white cotton straps.

Well, if you ask, it was perfectly normal clothing. That is to say, it was genuinely normal clothes, rather than a item set or modified armor. The first time Burlaug saw her dressed like that, he looked as if he was about to have a stroke, but she calmly explained that she wasn't going to wear her full end-game set all the time.

At least in the privacy of her own room, she wanted to be able to dress however she wanted.

"Hmmm...!" ~ she cooed as she stretched, lifting her arms above her head and smiling. She had been reading for a while now, and her neck felt a little stiff.

The 'cereals and milk' operation to enrich the children's diet had been a success!

When Lyann heard about it, she commented that while the younger children would probably have no issues, teens and older were likely to turn lactose intolerant due to the previous lack of cattle in this world.

So, she had been reading on it, and was sure she would be able to spot if any of the children were unable to process milk in the future. As Lyann said, however, most of them would probably become unable to once they aged.

By the way, everyone 'born' in Tengoku Junzi was able to drink milk with no issue whatsoever.

Well, if they had a way to produce nanomachines, they would be able to implement gene therapy in this world, and correct most health problems before they manifested, but while Mako was actually quite handy with technology, the super specialized knowledge needed for such was out of her field of expertise, as well as those of Lyann or Ren.

In the short term, the children were now looking forth to breakfast. She had began looking for a way to make star-shaped cereals to turn breakfast into a fun experience.

With the medical encyclopedia closed now, she opened her research notes, a book about programming, and a tome in magic. Her [Origin of Species] over magic spell was a success, but she had only modified it slightly in order to create non-intelligent lifeforms up to now.

Now that she was thinking about creating sapient beings, she needed to consider a large number of things.

The purpose was clear. It certainly wasn't one of those 'just to see if I can' situations. She wanted to create strong but kind beings that would be of help to others, and able to live as civilized folk, but at home in the wilderness if need be.

She was choosing by a process of elimination.

Humans? No racial superiority complex, please. Human beings created by a 'goddess' and given divine purpose already sounded like it was asking for problems in the future.

Elves, dwarfs, gnomes, hobbits... they were all considered demi-humans and discriminated against by humans.

Undead or outsiders would have many advantages, such as requiring no upkeep. It was one of the reasons Tengoku Junzi could afford such a large army and still aboic pop bankrupcy. But they either had extremely low fertility, or none at all.

It had to be a race capable of sustaining itself over time.

Htteromorphic races? Mako certainly had no problem at all with them. They had the advantage of being similarly distanced from humans, orcs, goblins, elves, dwarves, or the like. But at the same time, it was also a disadvantage to make them too alien.

Slimes? The lack of apendages would be an issue. Mako knew she could probably design a humanoid-shaped slime race in time, but the idea of a entire race of strong intelligent creatures immune to physical damage and able to reproduce asexually whenever they had enough food was just asking for a overpopulation problem.

Doppelganger? It was certainly possible for a race with no distinct appearance of their own to fit in with anyone, but at the same time, it would lead to paranoia and suspicion. The shapeshifting side wasn't a problem on itself. The problem was the ability to look like anyone, and replace anyone.

That said, shapeshifters? Weretigers, werewolves, wolfwere, werebears, wererats... they were all famed as evil monsters, and that ruled them out. The [Origin of Species] Over Magic spell was capable of creating true living beings, but it wasn't able to modify their natural alignment tendencies, and those were all normally evil.

She needed a naturally good race, or at least neutral.

Fae? Almost all faeries had horror stories behind them. Flighty and whimsical were basically synonims with faeries, as was cruel and cold. They weren't actually evil, but they found the idea of turning a boy into a tree to be hilarious. They wouldn't do it with evil intent, but that only made them scarier.

Fae... shapeshifter... neutral and able to live with others... she was thinking along those lines, feeling like she had forgotten something basic, when Virupaksa knocked on her door.

"Doctor Orders-sama, may we enter your room?" - the succubus asked softly.

"Come in."

When Mako saw who came in with Virupaksa, she had her answer.

~O~

Virupaksa and Kubera walked into the room, wearing their usual gear. In Vitupaksa's case, this meant a simple, long white dress with golden armor shoulder and breast plates over it, and a red 'belt' wrapped many times around her thin waist.

Kubera was wearing asuper modern bodysuit in the style of many modern countries special forces. Well, since the use of nanomachines became widespread across the modern world, things like armor had become almost completely unrestrictive, and so hers covered her almost completely while hugging her figure, with an additional layer of plate armor over her torso and limbs, albeit it was mostly for decorative purposes in accordance with Lord_Quicote's tastes.

The plates are designed in a gothic armor style, slightly reminiscent of a medieval knight, and the end result was both aesthetically pleasing and a perfect marriage between protection and flexibility. allowing to make full use of the lightning fast movements of a sohei.

Well, in the end, thanks to Yggdrassil cosmetic items, her armor could have looked however her maker wanted it to look, and still be just as efficient. She could have been wearing a full set of plate armor, and the high quality materials would have still, through game mechanics, allowed for amazing freedom of movement. Her spear was nowhere to be seen, but it would immediately materialize in her hands if she needed it to.

When Mako saw them, she smiled brightly as if she had just thought about something. Which in fact she did.

Kubera is a hengeyokai. Despite having a human form and a human-beast hybrid form, they also have a purely animal form, which made them qualify as a heteromorphic race.

Thus, she was neither beast nor human. Her kin would be the ideal agents fod good and peace that Mako was hoping for. They were even naturally giving to guarding both small settlements and the wilderness, so even in the future, they would be able to naturally live with such a role without anyone ordering them to do so.

"Doctor Orders-sama, we have returned from wrapping up the surviving rakshasa." - Kubera announced politely as she bowed, holding her wooden umbrella in both hands.

As the leader of the Four Heavenly Kings, it was obvious that she would report on behalf of her peers once the mission was completed.

Mako looked at her for a moment, thinking about how to modify the [Origin of Species] Over Magic spell to go from regular rabbits to hengeyokai. In a sense, it would be simpler than going for a completely new race, after all.

"Doctor Orders-sama?" - the bunny faery repeated herself, a little bit confused as to why the Exalted One was looking at her like that.

"Ah, I am sorry, Kubera-chan. Please call me Mako, alright? I feel you are talking to someone else when you call me 'Doctor Orders' after all."

"B-but..."

"It just doesn't feel right. You wouldn't like it if I started calling you Kubera Gabriella every time I spoke your name, right?"

"...it would feel rather cold." -she said while hugging her umbrella

"Right? Please call me Mako."

"Then, maybe for informal occasions?"

Mako looked at her while supporting her right hand on her face and her right elbow with her right hand. The gesture was very natural, and pushed her generous blossom slightly upwards.

Kubera-chan, please call me Mako all the time."

"Please spare me from such a thing."

"You are all so difficult about this." ~ Mako sighed and looked at her.

But, most people who had finished their build had also customized their final gear to look the way they wanted it to look, and only used the costume slot for special ocasions. Well, neither approach was wrong in the end.

"What happened to the prisoners?" ~ asked Mako

"What prisoners?" ~ Kubera looked at her while slightly leaning her head.

Should she have taken rakshasa as prisoners?

"They were using humans as cattle, right? You must have rescued some of them."

"There were none left, Mako-sama."

Mako sighed again.

"Alright, thank you for your hard work. Where are Virulhaka Azriel and Dhrutarashta Michaella right now?"

"Virulhaka and Dhrutarashta are wandering the countryside. They said they wanted to explore the northern lands. There is an area known as the Katzu plains, which are a known undead spawning ground."

"A natural spawning ground for undead? I can see Dhurutarashta wanting to purify the region, but why did Virulhaka had to go with her?"

"Virulhaka Azriel will head northeast after a while, and explore a country known as the Baharuth Empire."

"I see! Yes, we should learn about the surrounding lands. I will ask Lyann to convince her new friends of traveling to other regions. Their common sense will surely aid us greatly in this. Oh, since you came all this way, would you like some tea?"

"Thank you, Mako-sama."

Mako had the succubus and the bunny girl sit down with her, and poured some hot tea into their cups.

"In a few days, Ren will go to Sorventh to oversee the extent of the city repairs and urban renewal. Please go and make sure that it is a safe place ahead of her."

"Yes! Uh... but sending all Four Heavenly Kings out again... could one of us stay in the city this time?"

"Alright, in that case... Virupaksa, you go."

"Yes, Mako-sama!"

~O~

Albion looked at the skill tree with a lot less wonder the 7th time.

Sure, it is amazing to see a floating holographic screen the first few times, but Lyann had loaned him a pair of magical spectacles so he could read it, and so far it looked like he could only pay the [Tutor] for a few skills, and most if not all of the best skills required other, more basic skills.

In short, it was a game of short term gain vs long term planning, and if Albion had had the head for that kind of thing, he probably would have been a merchant rather than a sword and board type of fighter.

"So, [Supreme Cleave] allows me to, after taking down a foe, move and attack again, and if I manage to take that target down, I can do it again and again as long as I keep taking them down, right?"

"Yes, but you first need [Power Attack], [Cleave], and [Great Cleave] ~la" ~Lyann replied patiently.

They had already gone through something similar with Cathya, but the party's rogue was quite happy now with her freshly acquired skills. She could even dodge (some) spells completely, and was nearly impossible to catch flat-footed!

Still, it seemed like it would take at least a couple of days before everyone was done with the NPC Tutors.

Well, it was already pleasantly surprising when the tutor's skills worked on the Wild Riders, and it opened a whole new world of possibilities to them.

"Maybe you should think about skills that will be immediately useful, such as defensive ones? I haven't seen you take down many enemies in just one blow ~la"

"Do you have any suggestions?"

"I have a lot, if you trust me enough to choose for you. Planning ahead is like 95% of what I do ~la"

It was true enough, as a Enchantress, planning ahead and choosing which buffs would better serve the party the following day was perhaps the most important part of her job. Even without knowing magic, anyone would understand that after spending any amount of time with her.

"Lyann, I trust you. Besides, we wouldn't even be able to learn these if you hadn't convinced us to come here."

"Alright, I'll do my best! ~sol"

The redhead thought about it for a few moments, then asked:

"Would you be alright with becoming a tank? ~la"

"What is that?"

"That means, you won't do much damage, but you're almost unkillable. You mostly just lock the enemy in place and either win by wearing it down or trust your allies to kill it for you. I was thinking that if you, Grumnir and Tazar for a few key abilities and worked defensively together, it would be amazing! ~la"

The three armor wielders of the group looked at each other, and shrugged.

"I know ye were just saying so to try and woo the lady Lyann to dinner with ye, but I'll play along, kid." ~ said Grumnir with a grin

"Jeez, don't be so subtle about it. Why don't you say what you really think?"

"That's what I really think."

"Subtlety literally goes over your head."

"Is that a short people joke!?"

"No, it really isn't."

"Alright, let me see... you three will need to have [Phalanx Fighting]. It normally gives you a little bit extra armor when you are using a shield and a light weapon, like a short sword or a gladius, but if you are next to another ally who is also using a light weapon and a shield, and also knows this trick, you basically double the armor you get from your shield ~la"

"Alright, that would be useful in closed spaces, like dungeon hallways."

"Double shield sounds good."

"I'm in. What else?"

"Let me see ~la"

[Phalanx Fighting] – Extra shield armor bonus when wielding a heavy shield and a light weapon. Bonus is tripled if adjacent to an ally who, while currently wielding a heavy shield and light weapon, also knows this trick.

[Shield Specialization] – Choose a type of shield, such as buckler, light or heavy. While wielding this type of shield, you receive a slightly greater than usual bonus from it. You can learn this ability multiple times, and each time it applies to a different type of shield.

"Of course, you should choose Heavy Shield since it already gets a bonus with [Phalanc Fighting], and they stack. Together when you are side by side, they basically triple the defense you get from a shield. However, that's the only two tricks I think all three of you should share. Let me see what else is a good idea for Albion ~la"

[Combat Expertise] – You can lower your attack to raise your defense.

[Improved Combat Expertise] – The bonus you get from Combat Expertise is greater.

[Allied Defense] – When you use Combat Expertise or Improved Combat Expertise next to any ally, that ally also receives the extra defense.

[Deadly Defense] – Raises your damage whenever you use Combat Expertise.

[Armor Specialization] – Choose a type of armor you are proficient with. While wearing that type of armor, you gain a small reduction to damage taken.

"That should be it for defensive feats... now let's see, highest ranked offensive tricks for fighters ~la"

Once Albion was done, they continued with Grumnir, then had to relocate to a temple for Tazar's benefit so he could learn special priest tricks, and to the wizard's guild for Kallisto's benefit. In the end, Lyann ended up quietly paying the tutors directly from her inventory so her friends wouldn't notice.

Well, it was literally chump change for her. Low level special abilities and spells wouldn't even cover the cost of a christmas event candy cane, after all.

After choosing their new feats for them, she felt obliged to help with gear. Well, it was just the one item for each of them, none of them a weapon, and they were all the cheapest available magical gear in the city magical shops, but there was a reason for that.

Still, it was better than what they had. Defense is extremely important when resurrection magic isn't readily available, after all.

~O~

Juno looked up at the ursinal officer as he came into his office.

'Ah, I'm fully used to this now." - He wasn't one for idle thought, but he was smart enough to realize his attitude had changed in the last few months.

The sight of a bear in walking upright in a military uniform was completely normal to him now. He had grown familiar with them to the point he could effortlessly tell them apart by their facial features, nowadays.

"Liutenant Greenhill, what can I do for you today?" - Juno invited the ursinal to take a seat as he poured him some mead (honeywater). Ursinals love mead.

"Thank you sir mayor, but I am on duty." - said the ursinal officer, while still eyeing the mead with sorrowful eyes.

"Of course, I'm sorry to have brought it up. What can I do for you?"

"I am here merely to inform you that the lady Virupaksa Ariel, Heavenly King of the West, will arrive shortly to inspect the civil works and the overall state of the city as a final check in preparation for Celi Malefactor-sama's arrival tomorrow."

"I'm sorry, I thought you said a lady king is coming."

"I did."

"Did you meant, a lady queen?"

"It is a traditional title. It cannot be changed for the convenience of its current holder."

Juno picked up the mead and drank it himself.

Well, it certainly wasn't the strangest thing he had heard or seen since accepting the office of mayor.

"She's not human, is she?"

"No."

"I somehow didn't think so. So! When will the distinguished lady arrive?"

"A [Message] was sent to announce she was walking to the [Gate] in the capital, so I would say we have 15 minutes, more or less?"

By capital, Juno knew the liutenant was talking about Tengoku Junzi, and not Daurgothoth.

"Alright, I will go to the [Gate] and wait for her there."

"Yes sir."

"Oh, and liutenant."

"Yes?"

"Please fetch my sister. There's no reason she gets to relax while I meet … would her excellency be the right way to address the lady?"

"I believe lady or milady would be appropriate followed by her given name."

"Thank you. Her name was...?"

"Virupaksa Ariel."

"Bi Rupaksá Ariel."

"It's just one word. Virupaksa. Virupaksa Ariel."

"Virupaksa."

"Splendid."

Juno nodded, and once the officer was gone, sighed.

~O~

Ren was going through her personal item bank. Thankfully, it had several functions to automatically categorize itself by crafting materials, quest items, healing potions, buff items, etc. Otherwise, the accumulated stuff from 10+ years of loot on Yggdrassil would be way too much for anyone to bear looking at it anymore.

Of course, it wasn't even as much as a drop of water in the ocean when compared to the guild's treasure room, but she didn't like having to go down to the treasury whenever she wanted to consult her books or craft something. And after talking with Lyann and meeting the Wild Riders, she felt like giving them something to celebrate their friendship.

It couldn't be a mighty item, but she didn't want to give them a random trinket, either. So, she was looking for inspiration while going through her inventory and looking at the titles of the books there.

Henchmen: Loyal Companions or Seedy Pack-Mules?  
Making Your Kit Work for You  
101 Uses for a 10' Pole  
Catapults: Yes, That's as Far as it Shoots  
Getting the Most Out of Your Party's Thief  
Today's Tinderbox - It's Not Just For Lighting Torches Anymore  
Dungeons to Tackle:  
 _Stinky Pieter's Halls o' Poorly Guarded Gold  
The Caves of Soundly Sleeping Monsters  
Archmage "Loose-Bowels" Wozley the Milksop's Enchanted Item Warehouse  
The Wooden Citadel of Darmos the Old and Crippled  
Uncle Fralin's Tool Shed  
... and more!_  
Dungeons To Avoid Like the Crotch-Rot:  
 _The Iron Fortress of Blodaz, Devourer of Souls  
Dominara the Erinyes' Nine-Layered Brothel of Violent Emasculation (No Slaking... or Slating... Allowed)  
The Crimson Hell-Pit of One Billion Miserable Deaths  
Uncle Fralin's Bedroom  
... and more!_  
Your Lantern and You  
Twelve Uses for Twelve Iron Spikes  
99 Uses for That Little Hammer That Comes With Twelve Iron Spikes  
Face It, You're Actually 'Neutral Evil'  
The King's Lovely Daughter: Look But Don't Touch  
Don't Put Your Hand in That Dark Hole

... and over eighty more information-packed books covering all aspects of adventuring, from hoarding to spell-casting and from bold heroics to arse-saving cowardice.

Her eyes lit up when she noticed one of her all-time in-game favorite books.

Weapons Of Legacy

Through the great deeds of illustrious heroes or terrible villains, these items have gained not only power, but power befitting of legends. A weapon of legacy will grow with its user, and so it will begin its service to a new owner as a generally well-made but otherwise unremarkable item, before slowly but surely growing with him or her unto a grand legend.

Out of all the Weapons Of Legacy described in the book, Ren always favored Cera Summat (Six, now Silenced). Out of nostalgia, she started brewing some tea to enjoy with the story...

The holy avenger is the paladin's ultimate weapon against the forces of evil.  
There are few creatures on the Lower Planes that would not fear to confront  
a holy warrior wielding such a weapon... and this one, perhaps more so than  
others. Once, it was nothing more than a simple iron sword, but through the  
courage and faith of one man, it became something more.

The fully awakened blade of this holy avenger glows with a soft golden light. Inscribed upon  
the hilt in flowing gold letters is "Cera Sumat," which translates into "Six,  
now Silenced." Cera Sumat earned its name through the labors of elderly duke  
Kholsa Ehld, a man cresting nearly eighty years of age, who vowed to complete a  
task that the greatest heroes of three kingdoms feared to do... all because of  
the weeping of a child.

The times in which Old Duke Ehld lived were ones of great upheaval, and the  
servitors of the Black Sun god were strong, crushing all that stood in their way. Entire  
kingdoms feared their wrath, and to speak out against them meant death, so many  
remained silent and turned their eyes from the evils of the Black Sun and his servants.

During these dark times, the most terrible of the Black Sun's minions were six who called  
themselves the Lost Followers. Their souls were storms of avarice and hate, and  
mighty were the powers at their command. They reveled in strife and tyranny...  
and for all the blood they shed, it was never enough.

Together, the Lost Followers brought about the downfall of the Silver Court,  
slaying its king upon his throne and renaming his once-beautiful nation the  
Barbed Kingdom. After animating his decapitated corpse and having it march  
through the streets slaying anyone it could find, they brought a rain of fire  
down upon the city and the lands around, leaving it a barren wasteland. It is  
said that they dined in the capital's great hall that night as the land burned,  
and they raised their wine glasses as the screams of the dying reached their  
peak.

There was only one survivor. In their last act of malice, the Lost Followers  
left the king's only daughter, barely five years old, alive to reign as "Queen"  
over the burned kingdom. They called her the Weeping Queen and casted wards about  
her so that she might never leave the empty capital, and then left her to  
starve. Their appetite for evil momentarily satisfied, the Lost Followers parted ways and  
went upon their separate roads of damnation, sowing strife in the Black Sun's name.

Old Duke Ehld was the first one to cross the wards of the Barbed Kingdom and  
seek out the Weeping Queen upon her father's throne. When he found the small  
girl, he approached, kneeled before her, and told her he had come to pledge his  
life in her service. In stiff, formal words, he said he had brought food and  
water, and apologized for his lateness, but his bones were old and it had taken  
him some time to reach this place. The near-starving child stared at him as he  
pledged his worn blade and his honor to seeing that the ones who had done this  
terrible crime answered for their actions, if his Queen wished it. After a  
long, stunned silence, the Weeping Queen found the words to thank him.

From the moment Ehld left the throne room in search of the Lost Followers, the  
weeping of the queen ended, and she never wept again.

Her tea ready, Ren poured the tea and reached for some cookies, made herself comfortable on the couch, and kept reading.

For over six years, Ehld traveled all the lands of the world and across the planes  
themselves, seeking the Six, and asking them to answer for their crimes. Each in  
turn scoffed at the old man and his worn-looking blade, only to find him a dangerous  
opponent... and in the end, the victor. He recorded the events of their death  
upon a stone set into the pommel of his blade, and there was even regret in his  
writings, because he had not been able to enlighten the Lost Followers to turn from  
their path before it came to its end.

When the last of the Six had answered for their crimes upon the edge of the Cera  
Sumat blade, Ehld returned to the Weeping Queen and laid the blade at her feet.  
Where once it had been a tarnished blade, it shone as brightly as the sun, and  
the stone in the pommel was covered with the writing of his journeys. He  
detached the stone, set it into a chain, and gave it to the Weeping Queen. Ehld  
told her to keep the chain to wear as a reminder of the many evils of the world  
and that they are never far from one's heart... but if one's heart is true and  
one's path is righteous, one may triumph against any number of evils.

Duke Ehld outlived his queen, who lived to the age of 107, at which point Ehld took  
his Cera Sumat and left the Barbed Kingdom... and is said to have traveled  
north. In time, the Barbed Kingdom rose to its former glory and its name was  
changed, and with it, the fate of Cera Sumat and the Medallion of the Lost  
Followers was forgotten... until a hero can reunite the blade and the medallion, to make  
the Holy Avenger whole once again to meet the followes of evil in battle

once again, perhaps for the last time.

But the story of Ehld and Cera Sumat was a story of another time, and of the  
adventures of another hero. This is now your time, and your epic. If your band  
counts a paladin among its number, then the ancient blade is yours to wield  
against the forces of evil...

And perhaps, if your heart is true, save a land from destruction once again.

'Uhmm... yes, a [Legacy Weapon] would be fine, right? I can craft some using just my private materials and recipes for Lyann's friends. I don't think anyone will complain...' - Ren finished her tea, and poured herself a new cup.

As for the medallion, Ren had actually acquired it and it was part of her own End Game gear. If you focused on its surface, it used to be that a window would pop up, back in the days of Yggdrassil, and you could read the rest of the story. Now, it directly flowed unto her mind.

Perhaps the yuan-ti did not know what they held in the depths of Dragon's Eye, but  
simply holding this item reveals its long history to you, and its saga is a long  
and bloody one indeed. One only needs to hold the medallion close to them,  
close their eyes and concentrate upon it, and the chronicle of the medallion  
scrolls through your mind.

This notched stone was once set into the pommel of the ancient blade Cera Sumat,  
a Holy Avenger wielded by old Duke Kholsa Ehld as he walked upon the path of the  
Lost Followers, challenging them to answer for their crimes in the Barbed  
Kingdom. Inscribed upon the stone is the chronicle of his search for the six  
Lost Followers, and the circumstances surrounding their deaths. The medallion  
tells of the six:

Ehld met Inhein-Who-Was-Taken as she slept beneath the earth on the Battle of  
Bones and asked her to follow him to the Barbed Kingdom to be judged. Her  
laughter was a storm of bladed whispers, and she cursed the old man, hurling  
spells of death and flame upon him... she surrounded herself with mighty magics  
and swirling blades, daring the old man to come close, but he simply bowed his  
head and took shelter within the spiritual shield of his holy blade. In fury,  
she risked much and began to raise the dead from the Battle of Bones to destroy  
the Duke, but the shield around him prevented them from getting close. The  
undead, furious at their summoner for putting them to an impossible task, turned  
upon their mistress and tore her apart. Ehld took what was left in a small  
metal cask and took it to the highest hill at daybreak, and let the sun shine  
down upon Inhein's remains until they were dust.

Broken Khree, one of the only monks to fight the Black Raven in combat and  
survive with only his legs shattered and his jaw splintered, was next of the  
six, and he was not hard to find. He had gathered together a band of slaves  
captured from a number of small farming hamlets and had them build a temple in  
Black Sun's name. Khree was a master of unarmed combat, with eyes and reflexes so  
quick that he could dodge missiles and spells before they stood a chance of  
touching him - and he had sent many archers and mages to their graves. In hand  
to hand combat, he was a terror, for his bones and body were one with the  
elements, ignoring fire, cold, lightning, and weather's other displeasures, and  
while his skin could be stabbed or cut, his bones had the strength of the earth  
about them, preventing them from being broken or crushed by all but the most  
powerful of attacks. Ehld knew this, and when he found the bloody monk, the two  
traded no words, but attacked each other immediately. It was all Ehld could do  
to dodge Khree's attacks, but in a dangerous stratagem, Ehld tricked Khree into  
collapsing the newly-erected temple of the Black Sun around them, causing Khree's arms to  
become pinned by the falling masonry. The monk died as the falling crossbeams  
of the temple pierced his chest, and in the last minute of his life, he spat his  
defiance against Ehld and told him he would fight his way back from death to  
destroy him.

Kaervas Death's Head was the lord of an empire deep within the earth, and he sat  
upon his lava-red throne of rock and lava, his skin so thick with calluses and  
black enchantments that no mortal weapon could pierce or cut it. Ehld traveled  
many leagues beneath the surface of the world and demanded an audience with the  
black rock king. Kaervas, amused by the old human's challenge, agreed to fight  
him, but found Ehld's strength and holy avenger an equal match for his strength  
and skill. Finding it almost impossible to strike a mortal blow against Kaervas  
with even his holy avenger, Ehld parried one of Kaervas' strikes and turned the  
momentum of Kaervas' own axe back on its owner, causing the blunt end of his  
mighty axe to sink into the dwarf's skull, splintering the bone beneath the skin  
into fragments. The Duergar allowed the human who had slain their king to leave  
unmolested, and they sealed Kaervas' body in the throne room where he died.

Atalaclys the Lost traveled upon the great sands of Anarouch, hoping to unearth  
some of the ancient magics buried within the desert to stave off the rotting  
disease which had claimed him. Ehld tracked him down through the shifting  
desert, meeting him in the sandy square of a dead town. With no living creature  
as their witness, the two of them fought for days, spell and blade clashing with no end,  
until at the height of the fourth day, Atalaclys's rotting throat cracked in the  
desert heat. Unable to utter a spell to carry him away, Ehld left him in the  
desert, feding the flies and beetles of Anarouch.

Jaiger of the Fanged Season had once been one of four Uthgart brothers whose  
father had blessed with a binding of the elements. Jaiger had been  
bound to the Elemental Plane of Air, and such was his power that he could  
harness the wind to pull his bowstring - and cause the missiles and spells of  
his enemies to go astray. Jaiger was serving as a mercenary in one of the many  
southern kingdoms, his bow firing out a stream of arrows so fast and sure that  
he was said to bring a Rain of Death wherever he traveled. Ehld found the  
toothless barbarian within the brothels of a southern port, half-drunk and  
belligerent. When confronted, Jaiger was too deep in his cups to realize who  
Ehld was, and once it suddenly sunk in that the old man had come to capture him,  
Jaiger tried to fight back with his bow - only to find it much more difficult to  
fire with his opponent standing almost on top of him than it was when the  
opponent was a horizon's distance away. Although Jaiger sunk many arrows into  
his opponent, Ehld was able to best him with a whirling strike that severed  
Jaiger's bow... and the barbarian's throat.

Veddion Kairne, the Hunched Lord, was the last and most difficult of Ehld's  
challenges. Kairne was said to be the spawn of a storm giant and a demon,  
combining the great strength of his father with the cunning and bloodthirstiness  
of his mother. No fork of lightning could touch him, no fire could burn him,  
and it was said that he bathed in acid and frost as if it were water. The two  
bloods coursing through him had given him a tremendous resistance to magic, but  
it prevented him from using magic himself, forcing him to walk the face of  
the world whenever he wished to travel the land. Instead of awaiting his death,  
however, he sought out Ehld as he was traveling upon the Spine of the World  
Mountains and tasked the old paladin with proving him guilty of the slaughter in  
the Barbed Kingdom. The two of them dueled with words for many hours atop the  
Spine of the World Mountains until Ehld finally tricked Kairne into admitting  
his guilt... and the Hunched Lord laughed and their battle began. Hurling  
jagged boulders at the elderly warrior, Kairne buried Ehld under an ever-growing  
mountain of rubble, then lifted up his hammer to drive the tombstone into the  
makeshift cairn around the old warrior... only to have the cairn collapse  
beneath him, causing an avalanche and crushing him beneath its great weight.  
Ehld, who had been crouching within the cairn and using his sword as a brace  
against the precarious balance of the rocks, had slipped free and let weight and  
gravity take their course. With Kairne, the last of the six had been silenced,  
and Ehld returned home to his Queen.

When he arrived in the court of the Barbed Kingdom, Ehld detached the medallion  
from the pommel of his Holy Avenger and gave it to his Queen to wear as a  
reminder of the many evils of the world... but if one's heart is true and one's  
path is righteous, one may triumph against any number of evils.

If this medallion could somehow be brought to the resting place of Ehld's Holy  
Avenger, the blade will rise in glory, ready to be taken up against the  
forces of evil once again.

Back during the last days of Yggdrassil, Lord_Quixote had obtained the Cera Summat blade, and it now rested in the guild's treasure room after his retirement, but neither Ren nor Mako had the abilities nor the right job to wield it, and while Lyann could use a special bard skill to 'trick' the blade into service as if she was a paladin, she preferred spears to swords.

Thus, the blade was allowed to sleep: a simple, rusty-looking, well-crafted iron longsword waiting for a paladin's hand. It was a shame that there was none in the Wild Rider's party, but it did at least inspire Ren as to what type of item she would gift them with.

~O~

Draudillon Oriculus, Dragon Lord and queen of the Dragonic Kingdom, was having a very good day.

Now that the beastmen were finally gone, and not just temporarily repelled, but actually gone, never to return, she could announce the end of the 'curse' that held her back in an infant state, and begin quickly 'growing up to her proper age' over the following months.

Honestly, she wanted to make it a few weeks, but her most trusted minister begged her to control herself for the sake of letting the court grow used to her new appearance in a comfortable manner.

Well, she had waited decades for this, three months wouldn't be the end of her.

"This is one of the new coins." - A minister approached with a small plate where three brand new coins had been placed.

A gold, silver and copper coin.

Draudillon picked the copper coin first, held it between the tip of her youthful fingers, and looked at both its sides. It was well enough minted, for the standards of technology in the region, but after seeing the beautiful gold coins of Tengoku Junzi, the queen couldn't help but feel like a child trying to imitate an adult.

The ministers quietly shared her opinion on the matter. All of them had at least seen a few coins, showed them to each other, or had managed to lay their hands on a few for themselves.

"This the best we can do?" -she was still using childlike speech. It was better to grow out of it slowly, after all.

"I am afraid so, your highness. Perhaps we could ask the lady ambassador for a technological trade?"

"Oh, that sounds great! So, what do we offer on our end?"

"..."

The way she said so was plain and completely serious. Weapons technology, farming technology, magical tool development, military technology. There was not a single field where the queen or the ministers felt superior to their 'new' neighbors.

"Perhaps we could honestly ask what the ambassador would like to ask for?" - ventured someone after a moment.

To be honest, there were magical tools that had caught Ren's eye. Yggdrassil had tried to create a fantasy world, after all, so it tried to forcefully keep technology as backwards as possible. In this world, however, thanks to the efforts of players who had shown up in the past, magical tool development had done a serious effort to match the comfort of the modern world.

Like this, things like cold boxes trying to imitate refrigerators, blazing ovens to try and imitate modern kitchens, magically powered perimeter alarms... there was actually a number of things that had caught the eyes of both Ren and Lyann.

"Alrighty then, I'll ask lady Malefactor the next time we meet for tea."

~O~

"Mako-sama, the explorers report..." - Burlaug began talking with walking next to her along the hallway.

She was dressed in her 'let's get dirty' clothes, which meant she was going to the nursery/school again. Well, she had made it a part of her daily routine by now. She was wearing very casual clothes, the same long, white t-shirt with dozens of small and colorful hand imprints in many colors, jeans, and white running shoes.

Her long, midnight-black hair was pulled behind her into a loose ponytail, and secured in place with a long white lace with a ribbon knot. She was in a very good mood, hoping to see the children's faces when they tried out the candy apples she had prepared early and was now carrying in her inventory.

She had also planned some basic math lessons, and procured more finger paint to try and teach them to write in as fun a manner as possible.

"I've read them. The Theocracy hunts, eradicates and enslaves demihumans in their lands and elsewhere. I want to bring those people to Tengoku Junzi, or, if they are too many or do not wish to live with us, prepare a nearby region for them. I already wrote a plan for it and intent to speak about it in tonight's council meeting."

"Ah, yes, well, I am worried about allowing strangers into the city area... well, security will decrease, and..." - what Burlaug was trying to say was "I don't want dangerous strangers being close to you."

"We'll talk about it tonight."

"Yes, Mako-sama."

Mako arrived at the school's door, went in, and was greeted by the children's happy voices and tight hugs.

Burlaug stared at the scene through the door's window for a full five minutes, then left.

'Mako-sama is too kind. Children are fine, but entire tribes of violent strangers? Savages. What if one of them tries to hurt M- I can't even think of it!' - such were his troubled thoughts as he walked towards the city.

Meanwhile, Mako was kneeling on the floor, sitting on her heels as she wiped the paint off a little boy's face.

"Don't try to rub your eyes with dirty hands, it only makes it worse, Rudy."

"Yes Mako-sama."

Then, she turned towards the other children, and asked them to fetch some white paper and sit on the floor so the class could begin.

They whined and pouted, until she promised to give them a new treat if they were good children today, then her math class could start.

'Well, the candy apples were for them to begin with.' -she thought- 'I wonder if there's cacao on this world? They'd love chocolate, right?'

~O~

"Captain, there it is again! Can you hear it now?!" - one of the imperial knights called out as he caught up to his commanding officer.

The wind was strong enough to pick up the sand, have it fly up to 3" tall, and completely prevent the sun from reaching the ground under it, yet it went no higher, somehow. It was to a degree where one was nothing but darkness within 3" from the ground, and over that, there's only fog.

For the knights patrolling the area for undead, it was a terrifying set of conditions, since monsters could emerge from that unnatural darkness literally at any time, the wind was strong enough that it was difficult for your allies to head your calls for help if you happened to be any further than 10" away from them, and to top it off, you could easily lose sight of them in the fog.

"I can't believe it, but I did hear it this time. Just for a moment, though." - replied the captain

Over the last three months, things had gone from bad to worse. Specifically, after the Sorcerer King, Ainz Ooal Gown personally snuffed out the lives of almost 100.000 people with a single spell.

The Katze plains had always been a dangerous place, where the ever present mist registered as a undead being, making spells to detect or ward against undead, completely useless. A horrible place where undead monsters would randomly, and regularly, spawn forth from the ground. A near-guaranteed death sentence for the troops who had to patrol them and clear out the undead in order to prevent them from gathering and giving birth to yet stronger undead through the effect of what is known as the 'Spiral of Death.'

Specifically, it meant that whenever undead gathered in a place, their collective negative energy would bring forth more, and greater, undead, whose negative energy in turn would bring forth even more undead, and so on in a ever-growing tide of death and madness.

And ever since the sorcerer king, Ainz Ooal Gown snuffed the lives of half the kingdom's army with a single spell, this horrible place had turned truly hellish.

It had been long understood by the patrols of both the kingdom and the empire, that there were no enemies in the plains except the undead. Both groups would politely greet each other whenever they found the chance for it, and would even cooperate and go to each other's rescue if need be.

That is why, while the music was more than simply out of place, it was not a sound that induced fear in the hearts of the knights. They had never even heard about undead musicians. The very idea was laughable.

"Perhaps a merchant caravan?" - said the knight who had heard it first

"Ugh, I have said it before, but there has to be a limit to greed and recklessness. Is the profit from trading between E-Rantel and the Dragonic Kingdom really worth a trip through this hell?"

The captain looked around. He was experienced enough that he knew not to trust in the echo of the plains. Just because you heard a cry for help, you shouldn't immediately rush in whatever direction you thought it came from, but calmly wait for its final echo, as that would tell you the real direction it came from.

However, since the music was soft enough for him to barely hear it to begin with, its last echo was much too soft, and he couldn't figure out which way to go.

After a few minutes, he gave up on it.

"Never mind. If they're not asking for help, it's not really our business." - he just signaled his troop, and kept going north east back to base.

What the captain failed to notice, were two small figures walking against the wind just a stone throw away from his own group. They were striding forth at good speed, as if the harsh wind, the biting sands and the deep fog were naught but a refreshing breeze in a sunny day.

Both figures were female, and very clearly so, yet even as they kept each other's company and were playing a tune together, they seemed completely out of place next to each other.

One was dressed in a extremely luxurious, almost gaudy dress that in the southern desert would be called a kimono, with bright layers of silk printed with delicated yet flashy patters. It was clearly an outfit meant for two things: to impress its wearer's wealth upon the viewer, and to flaunt her beauty.

Indeed, its folds seemed to bloom on its upper half, almost like petals in a glower, revealing the delicate, flawless skin of a beauty with long dark hair arranged in a perfect cascade behind a high bun at the back of her head. The complexion of her face was exquisite, a natural beauty which was best adorned by not trying to add any artificial adornment to it, such as makeup or jewelry, for it would only substract from from its god-given perfection, and her delicate shoulders and neckline oozed a completely feminine beauty, leading to a shapely and generous bossom that seems to threaten with spilling out of her dress with every step, yet never did.

Down to the tip of her toes and beyond, she looked as if she was heading to a magnificent event at some imperial court, yet despite her apparent frailty, which seemed only more obvious with each tiny if quick step she took on her tall geta sandals, she was moving against the wind, the sand and the fog as if they weren't there while playing a shamisen with perfect skill.

Next to her, her companion managed to be her perfect match and complete opposite at the same time. With ease, too.

While Virulhaka Azriel, for that was the name of the colorful beauty playing the shamsen was, appeared as a princess in court, Dhrulhaka Azriel was dressed in such a way as to make a monk's clothes look positively gaudy and wasteful, and yet managed to appear perfectly elegant and alluring, at the same time.

While Virulhaka was covered in high-end magical gear from top to bottom, Dhrulhaka was wearing a white robe. That was it. That was all. She was not even wearing sandals on her feet, and her only 'accessory' if one dared to call it such, was a green bamboo shot she had cut off with her bare hands a couple hundred miles ago, and then with a small stone shard, worked into a flute.

And yet, she appeared the epitome of femininity and grace. Not only was her robe small enough to expose most of her legs, it opened at the top to, like her friend's robe, show off her perfect skin and feminine figure.

Of course, to say she wore no make up would be pointless. Her hair was kept short enough for it to expose her princess neck, its silver luster, mixed with her moon-pale skin and white robe, making her seem ethereal and unreal.

A careful observer may perhaps notice that, wherever the silver beauty passed, the fog receded, completely unwilling or unable to approach her.

"Those men" - said the colorful princess-like beauty- "they are going back."

"Alright." - replied her silver and white companion after lowering the improvised flute from her lips and holding it as the staff it was meant to be.

They understood each other well enough with just a short exchange, but it had actually been a meaningful conversation. Point by point, something along the lines of:

O - If the knights are heading to a military base, there will be more troops there.

O - If there are troops, they will need supplies.

O - Unless the supplies are transported through the air, teleported, or created in the spot with magic, there will be a road.

O - A road will eventually reach a city.

Therefore, Virulhaka and Dhrutarashta casually altered their course, and followed the now retreating knights. They kept a constant distance with no difficulty, as if the mist wasn't there to begin with.

"Fun." - said the silver-and-white Dhrutarashta Michaella, and licked her lips

"I will tell." - replied the rainbow-colored Virulhaka Ariel

This exchange had been over in a few words, but its actual meaning was more along the lines of:

O - Men are fun

O - There will be lots of men

O - I will have fun with the best-looking ones

And

O - Shut up, you slut, aren't you chasing after Kubera-sama?! I will tell her about it if you go wild, I definitively will!

They looked nothing alike, yet they were created as sisters.

Even though they were sisters, they belonged to different races.

Even if they were sisters of different races, they were still sisters with the same parents.

Those parents were Celi_Malefactor, Hammer_Time, Holy_Diver, and Shivadattha, all of which had added to their concept, design, build, equipment, background and personalities.

To be honest, the fact that Dhrutarashta Michaella was the aggressive predator type was completely Ren's fault. As soon as she realized she was a wolf, she thought it would be funny to give her a interest for as many partners as possible, but to always place Kubera, a rabbit, at the top of her 'to eat' list.

"That is, because a confident and sexually aggressive tomboy who can't confess to her one true love, is justice!" - those were Ren's unapologetic words, back then.

At the time, Mako had disconnected for a moment, just so she could go and karate chop Ren on the head, but Dhrutarashta's story was untouched.

Soon enough, the knights arrived at the edge of the Katze plains, with two uninvited kings on their trail.

~O~

Author Notes (this time there's a lot):

I-it's not like I care if you guys understand and enjoy the references, alright? I just happened to have all this research lying around, got it!? I'm not a tsundere author or anything! Stupid readers!

About Cera Summat.

It is not of my brewing, it is simply the holy sword I love the most in D&D. But c'mon, isn't its history just awesome? Oops, I may be coming down with a relapse of 8-years-old syndrome again.

About Dungeons & Dragons in anime, manga and LNs.

D&D seems to actually be surprisingly popular in Japan, to the point that the logs of gameplay sessions for original campaigns are distributed and sold as light novels of their own. Not just that, but many many great titles such as Record of Lodoss Wars, Overlord, Maouyu Mao Yusha and Log Horizon are based on such 'scripts.' Hell, the author of Overlord came out and said that he came up with the idea for Overlord after his D&D game group broke up.

So yeah, he's basically Ainz.

Now having said that, please allow me to drop a info dump on you.

There have been about 35+ years of D&D now, with 5, technically 6+, different editions of it, so there's a HUGE amount of playable races and classes for the players to choose from.

Sebas Tian is a monk. We are all clear on that (I hope). However, I can tell that he's a 'vanilla' monk. That is to say, he's from the monk class/job that comes in the original player handbook for D&D 3rd, 3.5 and 4th edition (I havent messed around with 5th, so no comment there).

That monk is oriented towards attaining physical perfection. It can do things like hitting pressure points to stun an opponent, use a 'flurry of blows' to make dozens of attacks against an opponent (think atatatatatatata from Fist of the North Star), heal by using its ki (or chi, however you prefer to call it), and use a 'death palm strike' where he touches someone, disrupt the target's inner ki and then can cause it to die at will within the next 24 hours, not to mention attaining the 'diamond body' which makes him immune to aging, poisons, non-magical weapons, and able to ignore trivial flesh and bone needs like food, air or sleep.

We have seen Sebas use ki healing already, ignore attacks from opponents with non-magical weapons, and such. I wonder if we'll ever get to see him use the death touch or the flurry of blows, though I get the feeling the author was not very familiar with the monk class, so I sort of doubt it, sadly.

However, in D&D, there are actually three 'monk traditions.'

The 'monk' is the one that comes in the Player's Handbook. Thus it is the most commonly known and popular, but there are two more. There is the 'inkyo' monk, whom, rather than attaching physical perfection, dedicates itself to spiritual enlightenment, by channeling and becoming one with 'the void.'

What's the void? Imagine a song. ANY song. The song exists because of the notes, right? But what is a musical note, but a sound with a definitive length and tone? Basically, it starts and ends. A song is a series of notes.

The void is the space between the notes. Without the void, the song would not exist. It would simply be a incoherent, eternal noise in various tones. A nightmare. Only when there is silence between the notes, only thanks to the void, does noise turn into music.

Similarly, every single thing, ever, is only a thing thanks to the void giving it limits, giving it shape.

A inkyo monk studies the void with the final purpose of becoming one with it, and therefore, becoming that which defines everything in the universe, becoming one with everything. Thus, inkyo monks are called 'enlightened monks.'

In combat, the monk uses powerful attacks and defensive techniques, mixed with a little bit of spiritual mastery, to best his enemies.

The inkyo monk, uses his mastery of the void to change the universe in order to obtain the desired result. "Oh, my kick is about to hit empty air? I guess I'll re arrange the universe so your chin happens to have been there all along. Oh, your attack is about to hit me? Sorry, I was never there."

As an old reference, Kenshiro, the protagonist of Fist of the Nort Star, uses a void technique called Musou Tensei to.. well, basically use emptiness to rearrange reality so his blows cannot be defended against and is unasailable.

As a more modern reference, think of the Fate/Stay Night lancer's Gae Bolga. You'd expect him to attack, therefore his spear is aimed at the heart of his enemy. But what he does is, he alters cause and effect, rearranging it so that his spear WILL hit the heart of his enemy, therefore he must simply attack.

The final inkyo monk technique is 'The Void Incarnate,' and I am literally going to copy and paste from the book here...

 **Void Incarnate** (Ex)  
The inkyo has mastered his use of Void, able to deflect godly attacks and perform inhuman feats of skill. His connection to the Void is so strong that his spirit continually regenerates spent Void points at the rate of 1 per hour. Furthermore he gains the native outsider type and no longer needs to eat, sleep, or breathe.

This means that his ability is Extraordinary, rather than magical, spell-like, or supernatural, so it works even inside an anti-magic field. It is completely a part of him, and cannot be prevented in any way.

Being an outsider means he becomes a spirit, basically.

So, the monk reaches 'Perfect Self' through physical discipline sprinkled with mental discipline, while the inkyo achieves it with mental discipline sprinkled with physical discipline. Both are perfectly valid, if somewhat different, paths to enlightenment.

The third monk job/class is called a sohei. They are extremely focused on combat, and typically fight wielding a yari, a long spear with a short sword at the tip. That's the best way I can think of to describe a yari.

In warring states japan, they were quite formidable, so yeah, they're actually a historical figure.

Basically:

Monk → Shaolin Monk → Enlightenment through martial arts

Inkyo → Buddhist Monk → Englightenment through meditation

Sohei → Militant Monk → Ass kickery through weapons

The sohei can dispel the spells or spell-like effects of targets he hits, resist magic with ease, and attack every opponent around him at the same time.

The monk becomes immune to aging, no longer gaining bonuses (to wisdom for example) nor suffering penalties (to strength, for example) as he ages. The inkyo becomes effecticaly immortal, and no longer receives bonuses nor penalties as he ages.

The sohei no longer receives penalties, but still receives bonuses. Think of it as leading to all those badass old guys in so many anime and manga. Have you ever seen a old master kicking ass despite looking like a fragile old man? There you go, that's likely a sohei. Aging in this way increases their wisdom, without lowering their physical abilities. Since all three 'flavors' of monks gain power based on their wisdom, this is a pretty big deal for them.

Now, about Tengoku Junzi Four Heavenly Kings... it was hard, but also fun. If you know Maouyu Mao Yusha, you may be familiar with a cute redheaded demon king who, when asked by the hero "why are you a demon king? Shouldnt you be a demon queen?" answers "It can't be helped, its a traditional title."

I decided to play with that, and that is why the Four Heavenly Kings are female, even though their original identities are male. Please forgive me if they are important characters in your culture, I just couldn't resist.

Kubera. He who hears everything. Originally, the chief of the four heavenly kings and protector of the north. He is the ruler of rain. His symbolic weapons are the umbrella or pagoda. Wearing heavy armor and carrying the umbrella in his right hand, he is often associated with the ancient indian god of wealth. Associated with the color yellow or green.

For the Tengoku Junzi version, I went with a bunny girl because bunny girls are cute, therefore bunny girls are justice! Also, 'he who hears everything' you know? When I think of that, I think of bunny ears. It was hard to decide on her job/class. I went looking around for styles of fighting involving umbrellas but didn't found anything that satisfied me.

Then I thought 'well, we have cosmetic items right? It can be something else that just looks like an umbrella' so decided she needed a long weapon that could be reasonably modded into a umbrella shape. Also, armor. That helped discard options until I came up with either a spear-focused fighter (the class known as fighter) or a sohei, since they both use spears and armor. In the end I went with sohei, thus Kubera wields a spear shaped like an umbrella or parasol.

As a side note, hengeyokai (her race) have three shapes they can switch between at will. Animal, human, and hybrid. And while the hybrid shape of a hare hengeyokai is actually pretty fucking scary (think werewolf-like), I thought 'hell, they made Shalltear look super cute despite really being a horrible monster, im sure we can have Kubera be a cute bunny girl.

Since she's the guardian in the shrine of Diligence, I imagined her personality as that of a earnest, super hard working type that gets the job done despite being (gently) bullied by the other kings, whiom she's meant to be the leader of.

Also, designing her looks was ridiculously hard. At one point, I thought of dressing her in traditional sohei armor. You know, ACTUAL historical warrior monk garb. But it was awful because it would hide the bunny ears and that was heresy.

First I found a comic book heroine named Shi, whose entire thing is that she is trained as a sohei. Then I looked at her, and chocked on my drink. She was striperrific, so no.

Then, I thought 'Alright dude, think back, female armor that looked viable while still being attractive, and protective yet allowing for a ton of mobility" and then I thought of Hellgate London. If you don't know what Im talking about, here you go:

albums/d84/Maglad/hellgate%20sculpture_

albums/d84/Maglad/hellgate%20wallpaper_

And last but not least watch?v=_T4lzDUxNlk&nohtml5=False

Here's a pic of a hare hengeyokai, if you need it.

albums/v171/Matrim_/Stuff/BunnyThief_

Virulhaka. He who causes to grow. King of the south and one who causes good growth of roots. He is the ruler of the wind. His symbolic weapon is the sword, which he carries in his right hand to protect the Dharma and the southern continent. Associated with the color blue.

For the Tengoku Junzi version, I choose human and samurai of the crane clan with the Different School feat so she also had access to the dragon clan techniques, to go with the sword mastery + no armor combo. To be honest, since she's the king that protects the shrine of patience, I choose to make her specialized in counters. She 'can' attack, but she's at her deadliest when she's countering an enemy's attack.

Virupaksa. He who sees all. King of the west and one who see all. His symbolic weapon is a snake or red cord that is representative of a dragon. As the eye in the sky, he sees people who do not believe in Buddhism and converts them. His ancient name means 'he who has broad objectives.' Associated with the color red.

You were already familiar with our chaste succubus. Why a succubus? Because chaste and loving succubus are cute. Also, the 'eye in the sky' implies she can fly, and the red cord was easy to imagine as a red whip.

And last but not least.

Dhrutarashta. He who upholds the realm. King of the east and god of music. His symbolic weapon is the pipa (stringed instrument). He is harmonious, compassionate and protects all beings. Uses his music to convert others to Buddhism. Associated with the color white.

Honestly I wanted to give this role to Lyann because of the music bit, but immediately realized it made no sense to have a player as a shrine guardian. Ended changing Dhrutarashta in a few minor ways. Her instrument was changed from a stringed instrument to a long flute, and while I thought about making her into a caster type focused on charm spells, in the end decided against it.

Why charm spells? Because the idea was for her to play her flute and charm people through its sound, forcing them to become good. But according to the Book of Exalted Deeds, such a thing is evil as it is not of the person's own free will. Embracing good has to come from within.

Sure, there is a process by which you can 'force' a change in a prisoner, but it involves being kind and caring to your prisoner, and slowly, bit by bit, talk him or her into changing perspectives and accepting good in his or her heart. Through honest discussion. No magic involved.

And that is how Dhrutarashta ended up as a inkyo monk who uses a long flute as a staff, and, since she represents Charity, has taken the (rather infamous in D&D) Vow of Poverty.

Also, a wolf girl, because Ren did it. No, seriously, I decided to blame Ren's sense of humor, and make her a wolf girl, because a wolf girl bullying a bunny girl is cute.

In the end, that left us with:

Virupaksa Ariel (succubus) Chastity. Red whip

Kubera Gabriella (bunny girl) Diligence. Golden umbrella

Virulhaka Azriel (human) Patience. Blue swords

Dhrutarashta Michaella (wolf girl) Charity. Long white flute

Hengeyokai in

D&D 4th edition wiki/Hengeyokai

D&D 3.5 edition

Also, I was super tempted to give Dhrutarashta and Kubera a yuri relationship, but since im not sure on what is and isn't allowed on this site, decided against it in the end. Again, because the wolf 'eats' the bunny, get it?

This author's notes section was sooo long. I don't think it'll be this long again! Also, I would like to hear your preference in the reviews and such: Would you prefer if I waited and posted the whole chapter as one, or are you fine with receiving long chapters like this, by parts? It would take longer if I waited for it all to be completed, but maybe it would be easier to read and/or navigate?

Note: I just realized that links are no longer available, as in, for some reason, I cannot add links anymore. I guess that explains why people had told me that links in the past weren't working. As I already struggled a lot to upload the chapter, I'm going to explore other options, such as starting a forum topic and posting the links there, if at all possible. Please excuse the invonveniences.


	11. Chapter 9 Part II - Godly Gifts

Chapter 9

"Those who play with the devil's toys will be brought by degrees to wield his sword."

– R. Buckminster Fuller

Part II

Lyann smiled as she played the violin at the inn's stage. Her Wild Riders friends had grown fond of her music, and she was quite happy to be able to share with them an ability that was truly hers, rather than Golden_Ballade's.

Indeed, her love for the violin was something she was more than happy to share with her friends, and even if her [Perform (String Instruments)] 'said' that it was meant to be amazing and soul stirring, the best Golden_Ballade could do was to just replay songs like a music player.

Perfect, yes. Note by note, flawless. But it lacked true emotion and warmth. During battle, her songs could heal, harm, support and hinder, but their sounds were still limited to those the programmers had set for each skill, and that typically meant little more than a few notes whenever she activated her [Bard Music] skills.

Right now, on the other hand, she was really playing a song. It was her skill, her love of music, being shared with her friends. And she loved it.

She was on the fence about the 'auto tunner' effect that Golden_Ballade had on her voice, though. She had studied singing to an extent. Not as deeply as violin, but well enough to be somewhat proud of her skill. Now, however, her voice was always and automatically on tune, no matter what, and she couldn't be sure how much of her singing voice was hers, and how much was her character's.

"What was that one called again?" - asked Kallista as she helped Lyann down from the tavern's stage.

"A spanish lady. ~la"

"It was very lively." - says Grumnir as he welcomes her back to the table

"Come think about it, do you hear it translated as well? ~la"

"No, it doesn't seem to work with music."

"Wait, are you sure about that!? ~sol" - the redhead seemed extremely serious all of a sudden

"Yes, quite. It only works with conversation. You had to learn to read the language, right? It doesn't works with anything but conversation."

Lyann's mind was ablaze with the possibilities.

"Lyann, what is it? You went quiet all of a sudden." - asked Albion after a moment

"Ah, I'm sorry. I just thought of something. Hey, is it alright if I withdraw early tonight. I want to show you around the city tomorrow before we have to go back to Daurgotheth. ~la"

"Of course."

"Good night. ~la"

She got up, and went upstairs into her room. Perhaps because she was in the middle of Tengoku Junzi, perhaps because she was distracted with the implications of what she just learnt, or perhaps because she had too much to drink, she wasn't paying attention, and missed the quiet shadow following after her.

As she approached the gates of the golden citadel, she returned to her 'normal' self. Her wings came into existence, the same bright red as her normal hair, which seemed to burst into flame as its bright red gave way to the illusion of a raging fire.

"Wh-!?" - Cathya couldn't help herself, and let her voice out

Lyann turned around, and noticed her on the alley.

"Cathy, wait! Please, cathya! ~sol" – she ran off behind her friend. Well, flew after her, really.

If one asked 'what is faster, someone on foot, or a bird on flight?' there is probably noone who would say "someone on foot." And it proved right once again, as Lyann took over Cathya and landed before her.

"Please wait! ~sol"

Cathya drew her blades out.

"Those are really unneccesary, you know? I just want to talk. ~sol"

"You are not human!"

"So? You seemed fine with the ambassador, and the guards here aren't human, either. The owner of the tavern we are staying at isn't human either! You are fine with Kallista, right? ~sol" – the redhead said as she lifted her hands

"But they didn't pretend to be, either."

"...I'm sorry. Look, can we sit down to talk about it? ~sol" – Lyann looked around, and took a small hop to sit on top of a nearby barrel.

"Ah... you really want to talk. Not going to try and silence me or something?"

"Sure, by asking you not to tell the others yet. ~la"

"That's it?" – the rogue asked as she lowered her daggers

"Yes, that's it. ~la"

They looked at each other, and Cathya finally shated back her weapons.

"Start talking."

"Well, I'd like to point out first that, if I went out looking like this, I wouldn't be able to go into any towns without a fight or some other incident, right? ~la"

"...alright, that's... true, I guess."

"I didn't lie, I... just didn't told you the whole story. The way I look with you guys, is the way I used to look before I turned into this. That is what I think of as my true appearance. ~la"

"Then why did you turn back?"

"Because even if I think of it that way, this is me now. ~sol" – the redhead sighed.- "I enjoy being a normal person with you guys. Ah, since it's come to this, would you like to go back to the others and let me tell them about it, at least? ~sol"

"But you would prefer not to, right?"

"I would prefer if they didn't see me as some weird mythical being. That is correct. ~la"

"I think you should tell them."

"I know! ~sol" – Lyann held her head with both hands in frustration. – "I only hoped it would be in, like, a couple of years. ~la"

It was such a natural gesture, Cathya couldn't help but to sigh. Despite of how she looked, Lyann really was the same person, after all.

"You know, if Albion knew you look like this, he wouldn't dare make any more moves on you." – said Cathya as she smirked

"Ah... I guess that's true, uh? He's not a bad guy, though. I kind of like him... ~la"

"You do!?"

"Yeah, but I know you are right, the moment he seems me like this, he'll think something stupid like me being out of his league or something. ~la"

Cathya stared at the angel of flame before her, and thought 'Honey, you ARE, though.'

"So, you are just egging him on? You know, whatever you look like or are or whatever, as his friend, I have to say you are being a bit of a bitch to him, then."

"I know... I just didn't think I would get a chance at dating a normal guy after turning into this thing. It felt nice. It felt normal, you know? ~la"

"Ah. I guess you have your own problems."

"Yeah... ~la" – they were quiet for a while

Lyann looked at Cathya. The rogue had piled a couple of crates and had sat down across from her.

"So, this is what you look like, now?"

"Yeah. ~la"

"But you are human?"

"I was up until a few weeks ago."

"Ah... so you actually are about as old as you told us you were?"

"Yes. ~la"

"Who did this to you?"

"I don't know. It's a story you wouldn't believe. No, seriously, don't make me tell you. It's not a secret or anything, it's just unbelievable, and this comes from the person it happened to. I wouldn't believe it. ~la"

"Is it bad?"

"Well... I'm way faster, healthier and stronger than I used to be, so in that sense it's not bad, but I'm not me... I'm not human anymore. ~la"

"You are also prettier. Kind of pisses me off, too. You were already prettier than me."

"Ah, I'm not into girls, though? ~la"

"Asshole. I was giving you an honest compliment."

"Sorry, bad attempt at humor. ~la"

"Oh, you are still human, alright. There's no way a graceful mythical creature would put her foot in her mouth like that."

"Thank you. I think. ~la"

They smiled and relaxed.

"Uhm, I have to go to a important meeting now. Can you go back and wait for me? I'll tell them the truth when I come back. Oh, I guess you can come with me if you want, but it's going to be way more boring than you can possibly suspect, you know? ~la"

"Why?"

"We are going to discuss budget, taxes, health policies... it's going to be 100% work stuff. ~la"

"How come?"

"I... ah... I am actually one of the rulers here... ~do" – she said so as softly as possible

"Oh. Oh! Just you wait until Grumnir and Tazar hear that, you'll be Lady Lyann forever more after that!"

"Y-you think I will be able to stay with you guys after this?! ~sol" – she said with hope shining all over her.

"Sure."

"Really?! ~sol"

"Yes, but you will have to explain a lot of stuff, starting with why are you going around on disguise to begin with."

"ah, can I explain it to everyone together? I don't want to have to go through a long story twice. ~la"

"Sure."

"Alright, so, want to come to my meeting, or want to go back and wait? ~la"

"I'll go. It'll be nice to get to see the palace from inside, your highness."

"Fuu... You're a jerk. Meanie! ~sol"

~O~

Juno and Alissa were standing next to a group of guardinal officers, all of which were standing as still as if they were carved of stone.

The sun was already low on the sky when the gems around the recently finished waypoint platform came to life, and with a discreet flash of light, a single figure suddenly stood between them.

With soft, glossy pink skin and bright red hair, the new arrival looked like a strawberry milkshake with cherries on top. She was wearing a simple but elegant long red dress, with a small golden chest plate and matching pauldrons. A similar set of armor plates covered her hips, and a form fitting red corset tightly hugged her wasp's waist.

While she would normally carry her whip wrapped around her waist, this time it was kept in her inventory, and rather than her normal white dress, she was wearing a red one which would be more resilient to the dust and dirt she expected to find in what was presumably still a construction site.

Her wings fluttered for a moment, she the soft hair between the tall horns at the top of her head danced in the wind.

"D-demon? no... angel?" - Juno didn't know what to feel. It was as if all the beauty in the world had gathered into one being.

Despite her seductive, infernally effective charm, the person before him carried herself in a very polite and demure manner, smiling with a truly warm and gentle expression that he felt like staring at forever.

"Good evening. Thank you very much for coming to welcome me, despite your doubtlessly busy schedule." - she spoke with kindness and warmth.

"A-are you the lady Virupaksa?" - asked Juno after a moment

"Yes! Please take care of me!"

"With pleasu- I mean, yes, of course!"

"Juno, don't stare so hard, you'll burn a hole through the lady's dress." - said Alissa as a joke

Her brother felt like he would die of shame, but at least she hadn't said 'through her breasts' which, if his eyes could indeed burn things, would have been in much direr trouble than Virupaksa's dress.

The ursinal, cervidal, avoral and equinal captains greeted their superior while standing at attention, and then the ursinal captain did the formal introductions.

"Lady Virupaksa Ariel, Heavenly King of the West. This is sir Juno Whiteglade, leader of the Wolf Greenhead adventurer group, fulfilling the position of mayor for the city of Sorventh at the request of general Subutai himself."

"King? Shouldn't it be queen?" - asked Alissa, somewhat confused

"It is a traditional title." -answered Juno, Virupaksa and the ursinal captain- "It can't be changed for the convenience of its bearer."

"I-i see."

~O~

Ren hammered away at the forge. It was a very natural action that she had done thousands of times as Celi_Malefactor, and she felt quite comfortable letting her character's 'muscle reflexes' take over at times like this. She simply placed the materials together and began hammering away, then after a while a progress bar would fill up and she would be left with a new item.

That's how it was back in Yggdrassil, anyway.

Now, the materials began fading away and she found herself doing much, much more than she had in the past. Her Celi_Malefactor avatar had indeed taken over as usual, but it was doing much more than just hitting the anvil.

The metals were poured into one of the furnaces in the south wall, bones and gems were carved and cut by her incredibly dextrous hands. The molten ores were hammered, folded, purified, molted again, hammered, purified, folded together, melted, poured, purified and poured into molds, then hammered again.

The blades were shaped, refined, polished, folded, hammered again, shaped once more... it was a much, much longer process, but it was also infinitely more interesting. She felt she was really crafting something now, and the spectacle, from her point of view, was fascinating.

Seeing the blades born one by one, the way her character poured magic into them, how the metal was handled and shaped, how it was cooled and polished, it was a tremendously time consuming, yet amazing sight.

She was a little curious. If she didn't had all the epic traits she had to reduce crafting times to 1/100th of what it should rightfully be, just how long would it take her to craft a single blade? Was this long hours long process for each of them the bare minimum necessary? She began to keep track of the time it took to craft each item, and confirmed that each of them took exactly the same time, down to the last second.

In that case, this was probably the minimum, and it was impossible to go faster. Sitting back inside herself, she let her avatar do the work, and enjoyed the show.

It took most of the day and part of the night, but when everything was done, five simple-looking, but beautiful and deceivingly powerful [Legacy Weapons] were born. Based on what Lyann told her of her new friends, she had crafted three gladius, a pair of matched kukri knives, and a staff. They were all incredibly high quality items despite their plain appearance, with power that would grow up as their owners spent more time with them, and dedicated effort to their mastery.

As a huge crafting fan, and being best friends with a history freak, Ren was well aware of the gladius' history. Originally, 'gladius' was simply the ancient roman word for 'sword.' In this case, she had crafted three roman swords of the type that was adopted later into the empire, which were called 'Gladius Hispaniensis,' or simply spanish swords.

A gladius is a robust, solid sword which had helped the romans to literally conquer the world. Just because it was classified as a short sword, it should not be underestimated. Ren was aware, also thanks (or because of) to Lyann's endless chatting about history, that in the time it took a real warrior to wield about a greatsword, a claymore or a longsword, a gladius would have already stabbed stabbed slashed and stabbed again.

Sure, huge flashy swords have a big 'cool' factor and are thus often the protagonist's weapons in videogames and media, but in truth, all those tribes using them were easily ran over and conquered by the roman legions using these shoft swords.

Since she was making weapons for real people, with real muscles and tendons rather than avatar-powered limbs which shamelessly ignored the rules of anatomy and common sense, she wanted to make the best possible weapons within the limits of Lyann's request.

As for the swords themselves, even though they looked quite similar, they would grow in different ways depending on their future owners. Would they shoot fire and lightning? Dance with uncanny speed? She could hardly wait to find out.

As a secret, she had added one of her own feathers to the first blade's core, one of her sister's to the second, and one of Lyann's to the third. What would an angel's feather do for the blade? She certainly didn't had a big enough head to think of herself as an angelic being, but she understood that by the rules of magic crafting, it should have some effect.

'Am I coming down with an 8-years-old-syndrome relapse?' - she wondered

The kukri daggers were meant to be used as a set, and their blades reflected light with a slightly green tint, despite being made of the same material as the gladius swords...

'No, isn't it redundant to think of them as gladius swords? It would translate to sword sword, right?' - she smiled, and kept examining her work.

Both the swords and the daggers were perfectly balanced. That meant that the weight of the handle matched the weight of the blade, and thus it felt natural to wield them and wouldn't tax the user's limbs. Since she added aururum to the blades, they would be self-sharpening and, even if by some miracle they were broken into pieces, they would immediately pull themselves together again.

'It would really take a miracle to break them, though, my babies.'

Finally, the staff. Kallista was a dark elf sorceress, and while her race's lore back in Yggdrassil painted them off as a race of bad guys, Ren was grown up enough to understand that it was just that, a game's fluff. From what she had heard, dark elves on this world were simply reclusive and timid folk who lived hardly every left their wooden homes.

It was a little disappointing, as she would have really liked to see a mystical city of inverted spires underground, but she was happy that they weren't a 'inherently evil' race.

She had made the staff's body with Serren wood and Blended quartz. This meant that it was able to hit ethereal creatures, and reduced the chances of arcane spell failure by 20%.

Ren was honestly curious about that. As a divine-type caster, she had no problem wearing armor and casting spells, but of course she knew that arcane casters were extremely limited in that sense. There was no better way to capture a mage or sorcerer and keep him from casting spells, than to have him wear a heavy plate.

The penalty was so severe, that over 50% of an arcane caster spells would fail while wearing such a thing. Still, mithril, specifically and only, was so light and carried magic so well as to lower the chance of 'arcane spell failure' by 20% for any armor made with it ...back on Yggdrassil.

This meant that a light armor, which would normally grant a 15% chance of Arcane Spell Failure, was safe for wizards to use if they had the right skill to equip it, making it the gold standard for multiclassed warrior/wizards and battlemages.

There were other factors which could raise Arcane Spell Failure as well. Deafness was a popular curse when fighting mages because it gave them +20% Arcana Spell Failure, as did Blindness.

Well, the Blended Quartz reduced Arcane Spell Failure by 20%, so it would doubtlessly be a high quality item in the dark elf sorceress' hands.

Ren looked at the weapons again. Right now, they were all +1 weapons, which made them each rank as just barely a [Low Magic Item] in Yggdrassil. Their growth was up to their users, now.

'Was using aururum and dykhast a bit too much? But if I'm using dykhast, I just had to add in some aururum, or it would be a waste.' -she was worried about them being too tempting a target to steal, but in fact the chances anyone knew what dykhast was were somewhere between slim and none in this world, after all.

But whenever she looked at the lore of the dykhast ingots, she just felt like using them.

 _Ancient dwaven legends tell of a time when the noblest of metals was not dwarven steel, adamantite, meteoric iron, soulsteel nor mithril, but dykhast – an alloy so strong that a blade's edge would never dull with toil or battle, and with a surface so perfect and gleaming that its shimmering surface could be seen a dragon's flight away. The oldest dwarven kings speak of dykhast blades with tears of fond remembrance in their eyes, and callously spit at the mention of the "sundry weak and piddling" metals that today's weapons and armors are fashioned from._

 _Any dwarven king would gladly give up his daughter for an ingot such as this, and his realm for two. The allure of dykhast is just that strong. But the truest connoisseurs will all agree, there is no matching the glory, the perfection, the utter joy... of Dykhast._

"Yeah, these are pretty good." -she actually said that out loud!

"Yeah, these are pretty good." -she said it again, for emphasis!

A godly gift!

Three dykhast blades were not merely on the scope of "yeah, these are pretty good" anymore!

Not even if you said it twice!

Not even if you said it twice! [1]

It couldn't even be placed in the same category as a mithril shirt or a soulsteel sword! These weren't things you were meant to give away in the first place!

She stored them away in her inventory, and, since she had been working for several hours now, took a shower before going to that night's meeting. Not that she needed it, as Mako, Lyann and herself had long found out that, apparently, angels don't sweat.

Or use the restroom.

It was quite the surprise when, going into the meeting room, she found Lyann had invited one of her friends.

~O~

"T-that's heresy!" - cried out the bishop of Earth, yet even to his ears, it sounded weak and unmotivated

"Is Iit? We follow the Six Gods, and moreover, defend their legacy in the shape of the godblooded."

"Yes, but, we still don't know if they are godblooded...!"

"Finish the phrase, come on."

"...there's even a chance they may be gods we were unaware of."

"There you go. Either way, I see no heresy there."

The bishops of the Dragonic Kingdom looked at each other, in silence. Their deliberation of weeks had given way to almost daily talk in the evenings.

It was surprisingly civil, all things considered.

"Not sure if they're gods? Did you not hear what I said?" - the bishop of Wind asked, more than a little tired.

Again, he told of what he saw, just that morning as he was scrying on Tengoku Junzi once more. This time, he even recorded it using the assistance of a memory crystal, so that his fellow bishops could see it by themselves.

~O~

A few hours earlier (just that morning, really)

Mako was standing still in mid air, a great sphere of raw magic floating all around her. Divine sigils and strange symbols dancing on its surface, shedding light like a gentler sun.

[Kubera-chan, are you ready?] – she asked the bunny hengeyokai through telepathy

[Yes, Mako-sama!]

When she used the [Origin of Species] spell before, it had been to create crops and cattle in the forms of corn, golden rice, chickens, rabbits, pigs and cows. Since she had to cast [Origin of Species] for each different creature, she had used a [Hourglass] cash shop item to reduce the Over Magic cast times.

This time, however, her aim was much higher in her eyes, and she did not dare take any shortcuts.

Wearing her End Game gear, she had as many different bonuses to [Spellcraft] as she could muster with the resources of the entire guild, and they were strong and numerous indeed.

Her aim was to use [Origin of Species] to create a large enough population of rabbit hengeyokai for them to become a true, breeding population.

The Difficulty Class of [Origin of Species] was already epic just for something as simple as corn, but with all the new requirements added to the spell this time... if asked, she would have admitted that she was nervous. Not even her knew if this would work.

Hengeyokai (Rabbit)

Creature Type: [Fae]

Creature Subtype: [Shapeshifter]

Basic Level: 1

Basic Strength: Human

Basic Dexterity: Slightly above human

Basic Constitution: Human

Basic Intelligence: Human

Basic Wisdom: Slightly below human

Basic Charisma: Human

Special abilities: Alternate Form – Rabbit, Hybrid, Human. Speak to Animals (rodents).

Well, even if they would have two attributes varying from the human standard, it was only by as little as 5% to 10%, and it was only relevant at low levels. As they leveled up, their stats would certainly increase.

Even upon creation, there was room for individuals to vary from each other by as much as 60% in any given stats, for better or for worse, although that too, was only relevant at level 1.

She kept chanting the spell's long aria, using a mix of celestial and [Words of Creation] to empower the spell. Uninterruptedly, for almost two hours, she hovered in place, revised the spell in her mind, and kept chanting.

Then, at the exact time as the rays of the sun began spreading past the mountain's peaks and gently caressed the crystal platform in the ground, the spell ended. The world seemed to stand still, the wind paused, the clouds hovered in place high above the sky. Crickets went silent, tree leaves ceased to move, and every living creature within a mile turned instinctively towards the Exalted One as her [Over Magic] [Origina of Species – Hengeyokai] spell went off!

A pillar of white and golden light descended on the valley. Or perhaps it raised from it? It was hard to tell. The effect for an observer was similar to the finger of god reaching into the world, and when it vanished, a little over four dozen pairs of males and females were there.

'Oh, I expected them to appear as rabbits, but to think they would start in human shape... is this because of my subconscious as a human being?' – Mako looked upon them kindly as she descended.

"My children" - she said to them - "I am happy to finally meet you."

Kubera moved in, and helped them towards the feast or nectar and ambrosia that had been prepared for them.

This was the biggest reason as to why Mako kept Kubera around. If [Origin of Species] was successful, the individuals thus created would naturally emulate the culture and alignment of their own kin, if present. Therefore, having Kubera welcome them ensured that they would have her morals and values implanted into their hearts.

As soon as she reached the ground, the newly arrived hengeyokai knelt before their mother. It was the natural thing to do.

'I should have prepared clothes' – Mako karate chopp'd herself mentally, then used [Greater Creation] to create simple kamisks for them, and helped guide them towards the feast.

It was important that her children grew up healthy, strong, and high-leveled soon. She herself had gone down from level 100 to level 98 after casting the [Over Magic] spell, and joined them on their leveling-up feast.

~O~

The guards at the south watch tower were the first to spot them. Two human-sized figures just barely visible as they approached through the fog.

With the calm and discipline of veterans, they immediately followed protocol and hit the bells in the right pattern to inform the rest of the fort about incoming unknowns. The watchmen on the western tower replied with their own bells, confirming that they had spotted the approaching targets, and the soldiers on duty ran up the stairs to the top of the crenelated walls, readying and aiming their crossbows, spells, and all three grapeshot catapults at the unknown figures.

"If you are living beings, stop where you are!" – called forth the officer on duty.

To everyone's relief, both figures stopped.

And as if on a cue, the fog began pulling back from them, or more exactly, from the silver-colored figure on the right. All this time, she had left a widening trail on the fog as it did its best to avoid her, and now that she had stopped, it was actively pulling away from her.

This allowed the soldiers to take a look at them.

Two peerless beauties stood patiently before the fort. One was dressed like a colorful flower, her navy blue hair so dark it looked black, carefully arranged into a bun high behind her head, from which it cascaded behind her like a veil of dark silk.

Next to her, her companion was dressed in the simplest possible manner, with a -just-almost-large-enough robe doing a heroic attempt at covering her curvy form. The way the shoulders and neckline were shaped, suggested health and strength that refused to abandon feminity in any way.

Neither one seemed to have a weapon, which just puzzled the captain. One of them seemed to barely own anything at all, so he thought they may be extremely lucky survivors from a doomed caravan that somehow managed to reach the fort.

Well, the silver-haired beauty dressed in white had a stick, but it was literally just thatm, a stick.

Seeing as they didn't rush the fort, the captain decided they were not running from a horde of undead, and signaled the men to lower their weapons, but remain ready, just in case.

"You can approach now, slowly."

Once they approached further, he along with the men (and women) on the wall could feel their hearts climb up to the back of their throat when they could take a better look at the strange travellers.

"Ah, your business?" – The captain could see that they were in no rush. The first thing he thought of were adventurers, but he could see no plates hanging from their necks, despite checking more than often.

"Just passing through." – answered the one that looked like a flower

"What?"

"Just passing through." – she repeated

"Are you adventurers?"

"No? I wonder... I guess that would certainly describe our current status?" – Vorulhaka looked to her companion for confirmation.

"This would count as an adventure. Yes."

With Dhrutarashta's confirmation, Virulhaka nodded and answered again.

"Indeed, that would be the most accurate descroiption of our current state. And we wish to pass through."

"What...? why?" – the captain was trying to make sense of the situation

"I wish to see the empire. She wanted to accompany me to its edge."

"Your base is nice. That one soldier over there, I would like to drink with him." – Dhrutarashta pointed her bamboo walking stick towards a young imperial soldier with pale gold hair and green eyes, much ike Kuubera's own.

This caused his fellow soldiers to instantly stare daggers at the lucky youth.

'Adventurers are always weird.' – the captain reminded himself. Well, they clearly were not spies, as they were all too flashy and stood way too much for it. He wasn't there to stop the flow of travelers, either, he was there to stop the Katze plains undead from spilling into the empire.

"You'll find very little work for adventurers in the empire itself." – he said as he signaled to open the doors. He doubted such a thing would discourage anyone who had already crossed the Katze plains to get there, but felt compelled to say it, all the same.

"Thank you." – said both Virulhaka Azriel and Dhrutarashta Michaella as they headed towards the doors.

Once they found themselves inside the fort, they saw that it was actually larger than they expected. It was more like a small town than just a base, and there were multiple buildings on the eastern side, rather than the dry military barracks they had expected to see.

The captain ordered their men to keep watch, and went down the wall to speak to the new arrivals.

"How did you made it through the plains?"

"We walked." – answered the silver-haired beauty in white.

"Please excuse my sister. Is there a inn here? This place seems bigger than expected."

"Yes, since we are at the edge of the Katze plains, many adventurers and workers come here to offer themselves off as mercenaries to fight the undead." – said the captain

"Oh. You can do that here?" – that seemed to interest Dhrutarashta.

"Yes, miss...?"

"Dhrutarashta Michaella. And my sister is Virulhaka Azriel."

Despite their obvious differences in wardrobe, looks and what he assumed to be family names, the captain could somehow accept it. They were both easily the most beautiful women he had ever seen, their surnames (he assumed that's what they were) sounded vaguely similar in the way names from a specific region tend to do, and he could easily believe that women this beautiful would come from the same family tree, rather than randomly sprouting all over wherever they came from.

Perhaps half sisters? It sounded feasible. One was the main house's daughter, while the other came from a concubine? That would explain the disparity of their wardrobe. Still, he was surprised that the silver haired beauty lacked even for sandals on her feet.

"Yes, you can take jobs to fight the undead on behalf of the garrison here, but you don't carry a plate?"

"A plate? Ah, Golden Ballade-sama mentioned such. It is a way to rank adventurers, correct? Can we apply for one here?"

"...yes, like I said, we get quite a number of adventurers and workers."

"Thank you. Could you point us towards the place, please?"

Barely 20 minutes later, Virulhaka Azriel left the fort with a shiny copper plate in display over her chest, while Dhrutarashta Michaella, her own chain and plate wrapped around the tip of her bamboo staff, headed towards the wall, looking for that handsome young man she had spotted before.

~O~

"And so, I invited my friend ~la"

"She said 'And so, I invited my friend ~la,' as if she had explained anything! Sis, karate chop her dummy head, karate chop her!" – cried out Ren

Mako sighs, and karate chops Ren, gently.

"Calm down."

"W-why me!?" – Ren covered her head with both hands, as if it had actually hurt, despite everyone seeing it was literally just a little tap.

"Lyann invited a friend, so behave."

"Uhhh... I'm gonna invite Draudillon, then!"

She got karate-chopped again.

"As if she had that kind of time! She has to rebuild after a terrible war, remember!?"

Cathya had been in awe, at the floors, the walls, the paintings, the furniture, the guards, the roofs, and of course, general Li, general Subutai, Mako, and now, Ren. Burlaug looked like a slightly taller, if very dignified dwarf, so she didn't felt so anxious around him, for which she was grateful.

She was still getting used to Lyann's true appearance, after all.

Seeing the stunning 'Exalted Ones' before her behaving like normal sisters put her at ease and made her relax.

Which was Ren and Mako's intention, of course.

"Thank you for taking care of my best friend." – said Mako as she bowed slightly. – "Please continue to do so in the future."

"No, actually, she's the one that's always helping us."

"See? I'm super useful! ~la"

"Yes, yes."

"I really am! ~sol"

Lyann cried out softly, making a slightly exagerated gesture out of it.

"Ah, please let me do a proper introduction! Cathya, these are Ren, and Mako. Mako is our leader. Ren is the court jester. ~la"

"I am not!"

"She's not...? alright. Ren is a goofer. ~la"

"Bullying? Is this bullying?" – Ren asked with a tear in each eye – "Nee-chan, refute her! Please refute what that redheaded meanie just said!"

"Lyann, please don't bully Ren. She is our..." – Mako started to talk with her left hand on her face, her right hand holding her left elbow.

"Why did you stop!?"

"What do you do? Burlaug-kun is in charge of finances and most administrative work. What he doesn't do, I do. Subutai-kun is in charge of the expedition forces, and Li-kun is in charge of the defenses..."

"I'm in research! I'm in charge of research! Someone please acknowledge my work!"

"Uh... even if you call it work, to cover the main square in sewage and call it work is a little..."

"Uhhh... I'm seriously going to cry, you know?"

"Ah, sorry, sorry."

Both Lyann and Mako apologized to Ren, and the actual meeting got started.

As Lyann had warned Cathya, it really was just work. It was also a chance for Cathya to see why Lyann had joined her and her friend's group, as the 'Exalted Ones' apparently were completely lacking in the common sense and common knowledge of the world.

After a while, she began being consulted about the lands and countries nearby, on things going from famous places to regional livestock and education levels. How could they know so little about the world baffled her, but once she felt more comfortable at the table, she felt that they were all good people, despite how intimidating and otherworldly some of them may look.

After the meeting, they had some snack and socializing time before going back to their rooms, or in Cathya and Lyann's case, to the inn. The pastry and drinks were delicious, and Cathya was more than happy to be gifted with two bottles of liquor.

"Ah, I made you guys some gifts, should I send them with you, or hand them myself tomorrow evening?" – said Ren while thinking of the weapons she had forged a few hours before.

"I think a gift should be given in person." – said Mako, and Lyann agreed.

After leaving the meeting room with Lyann, Cathya had an idea.

"Hey, you have your own room in the palace, right?"

"Yes, it's on the central tower, near the top. ~la"

"Can I see it?"

"I think we would start talking there and lose track of time. Tomorrow with everyone? ~la"

"You are planning on having everyone over?"

"If they don't kick me from the party, I'd like to give you guys a grand tour of the palace and the city, yes. ~la"

"You'll be fine."

"I... I really hope so ~la"

~O~

Virupaksa headed towards the recently finished southern wall with Juno and Clarissa. Once they got over the initial shock of her appearance, they seemed quite hospitable and polite, which as far as she knew, should have been somewhat surprising, giving their profession.

"Ah, the walls are not that different from the ones at home." – she said when she saw the crenelated double walls and the moat. – "Where are you planning on drawing the water from for the moat?"

"The engineering corps have plans to create several fountains and well in the city itself. The water will also flow into the moat!" – Juno answered tensely. He couldn't help but to feel nervous next to the pink and red succubus.

"And to prevent it from overflowing?"

"There will be two cannals leading the water towards farmland, but if it overflows, it will do so outwards from the city, so that a invading army would only turn the terrain into a swamp for themselves."

"I see, I see. Have you had any rakshasa spring out of hiding?"

"No, the troops were quite thorough, and there were no tigerme- ah, rakshasa left anywhere in the city."

Virupaksa nodded, and turned around slightly to look at the rest of the wall.

With the evening sun behind her and the breeze atop the wall playing with her hair, the sight of her profile was enough to pull Juno's heart out of his mouth.

"Can we look at the other walls now? Oh, have you enough troops for the rebuilding efforts? Enough supplies?"

"Yes, of course."

"To which one?"

"To all, thankfully."

"Oh, that's splendid. Celi Malefactor-sama already made plans to modernize public street lights. These are the first blueprints..." – Virupaksa pulled a long rolled up scroll out of seemingly thin air, and handed it to Juno

"Uhmm... I don't have a way to keep it without it getting wrinkled, could you hand it to me again when we return to the office, lady Virupaksa?"

"Yes, I'm sorry."

"Don't be..."

She looked at him with a smile, and a slightly puzzled expression since she was waiting for him to say something more, but instead he just stared at her eyes.

Clarissa cleared her throat, and patted his brother on the back to get him to restart moving and talking.

"Ah, yes! Let's go to the next wall!"

~O~

Ren took her clothes off and laid down on top of her ample bed. Her new body didn't need to sleep, but she was still able to do so if she wanted to, and she felt like it was just the thing she needed right now.

She enjoyed bending a knee and pushing her feet down against the sheets, wrinkling her otherwise flawless sheets. She had found that sleeping on her back was slightly annoying now that she had wings, so she had to force herself to change her sleeping habits so she could sleep on her side or her tummy.

[Lyann, how is the explaining going?] – she asked her friend using [Message] to talk through telepathy with her.

[Fuu...]

[That well? Are you kicked off their party?]

[No, but I'm getting lectured on trust and honesty by Tazar, our dwarvf priest]

[You sort of deserve it.]

[I know.]

[Alright, don't let me distract you, then. Talk to you tomorrow]

[Wait, don't make me pay attention t- ]

Ren ended the [Message] and then reopened it right away.

[Virupaksa, how are things on your end?]

[Celi Malefactor-sama! Everything looks ready for your visit tomorrow!]

[Alright. How is everyone doing over there?]

[The people seem hopeful and excited about your visit. Lord Juno, the mayor, is looking at me funny, though...]

[Is he looking at your horns, wings, tail, chest or taking turns between them?]

[Mostly my face and chest, why?]

[I'd say he's a normal, healthy man of good taste, then. Sounds quite normal to me.]

[Is that so?]

[Yes, I will see you tomorrow]

[Yes, Celi Malefactor-sama!]

Then, it was time for a final check with someone else.

[Dhrutarashta Michaella, how are things coming?] – she contacted the silver-colored beauty in white

[Yes! Yes!]

[Pardon me?]

[Celi Malefactor-sama!?]

Somehow, Ren had the strange impression she had heard a light curse and felt Dhrutarashta fall off from somewhere.

[Are you alright?]

[Yes! I'm sorry, you caught me by surprise, that's all! Things are great! Great!]

[Is that so? Did you make it to the empire's border already?]

[Yes! I am in frontier base Cassia. I already started getting acquainted with the troops! I can start investigating the Katze plains from this position. They have lots of requests for mercenaries to do so, in fact.]

[Good. Then, please contact me if you learn anything you feel is too important for our nightly report.]

[Yes, Celi Malefactor-sama!]

[I'll let you go back to... whatever you were doing. Have a good night]

[Yes! You tooooh..!]

The [Message] got cut off all of a sudden, and Ren couldn't help but to sigh. It had seemed like such a funny idea back when it was just a character's background story...

She karate-chopped herself, and poked her tongue out as she made a ;9 face.

~O~

Gagaran sighed. Following the massacre of Katze plains, the city of E-Rantel had become the stronghold of the Sorcerer King, Ainz Ooal Gown, an elder lich of untold power, and so she fully expected it to be a dark and gloomy place where the sun didn't dare show its face from behind the clouds, children cried at all hours, and wolves howled between the ruins.

However, as Blue Rose entered the city, what they found was a vibrating population, beautifully paved streets, a massive, new round building nearing completion in the southern side of the city, clean and healthy people, and a burgeoning economy that could be felt all around as the merchants loudly announced their goods both in the streets and in the brand new central market.

"Not quite the den of iniquity and villainy I was expecting." – she said to noone in particular.

"The guards. Those in the back are powerful undead." – Evileye, the wizard of their group, replied, also to noone in particular.

"Oho? How strong?" – asked Tia

"I hate undead, they have no vital points to stab." – said Tina

Evileye looked at the Dead Knights again for a couple of moments.

"We can take them with ease if its just one or two at the time, but any more and we're likely to take quite a bit of damage. If we had even numbers, we would probably lose someone. Almost certainly the mass of muscle." – she replied in her usual calm and dettached manner

"That strong? I see." – their leader, Lakyus, looked at the seven Dead Knights with new found respect.

In a even fight, they would probably lose someone? And yet they were already outnumbered. The extent of the Sorcerer King's power frightened her.

Their group was infiltrating E-Rantel to speak to Momon, the leader of Darkness. They hoped he would be able to shed some insight on the motives of the Sorcerer King, and perhaps assist them in their newest objective, obtaining the Nameless Book of Spells, hoping that it would help them find a way to oppose the immense power of Ainz Ooal Gown.

For some reason, as a dark elf girl riding a wagon passed next to them, Gagaran felt as if cold kitty feet were walking down her back. [2]

~O~

Author Notes:

Ugh, this chapter is turning out to be way way longer than I thought it would be, for some reason. Maybe its just because I feel like I have so much stuff to do with the Tengoku Junzi stuff. Maybe its character inflation? Perhaps I should emulate the author and keep it down to a few characters 'per volume' at a time. Well, I feel we are 2/3 of the way there, anyway.

Someone wrote asking for more action scenes, but honestly I'm worried people will say "OCs too OP" if I have them fight stuff. Well, theere will at some point be a huge ass fight with the people from Nazarick, maybe? but I just dont really see much point in giving Lyann or the NPCs enemies to fight since we all know how super OP the Yggdrassil people is vs the monsters and people on this world.

Though I do think it would be funny to have the wolf girl hengeyokai tenderly rape Gagaran, since Gagaran is actually a very kind person inside, yet also willing to rape virgin boys if given the chance. I envision something like Dhrutarashta showering her with her undiscriminating love (since Dhrutarashta is bisexual), and I think it would be hilarious to have the extra large and muscular Gagaran later call Dhrutarashta "Onee-sama" with lovey-dovey eyes.

Well, she who kills by the sword, dies by the sword, they say.

[1] I typed that in twice, for emphasis!

[2] I really wanted to type that 'she could feel her antennae standing up' but I'm not sure people would have gotten the reference.


	12. Chapter 9 Part III - End of Prologue

Chapter 9, Part III

"Angels have very nasty tempers. Especially when they're feeling righteous."

– Clive Barker, Mister B. Gone

"Be careful not to trip!" ~ Mako calls out to her young students as she watches them running on the (relatively) small valley grasslands around Tengoku Junzi.

She was a teacher up to a few weeks ago, and while she treated mostly with young teens, she was convinced that it was good for children of all ages to play outside as much as it was to study in the classroom.

Thus, she had taken the children out to play.

"Yes, sensei!" - the smaller children answered, and some of them actually glared at the grass for a few moments, as if trying to divine what sort of devious traps were there.

Rather than reading a book or working on her next project, Mako simply watched over the children while standing nearby over the grass.

In her previous world, she would probably had at least sat down under a tree's shadow, but she found that her new body was far more resiliant and had far fewer needs.

Unlike usual, however, she wasn't wearing her casual clothes, but one of her actual gear sets. Specifically, it was her healing set, which gave her huge bonuses to buffs and healing, but very little to defense and nearly nothing to attack. It was one she usually wore when she was with a party she could trust to keep aggro off her, so she could use area effects to heal without worrying about mobs switching targets to her.

The reason she was wearing it... well, it was a nice clean summer dress-like set, and it was such a nice, bright day outside.

Three of her [Children]. The hare hengeyokai she had created a couple of days ago, were helping her take care of the children, while 2 Solar Archons kept watch over her.

She was quite sure that the guards were unnecessary, but she was equally sure that Burlaug would have a stroke if she went out without assistants or guards.

As she was looking at the children, she noticed a brief flash of light coming from the city behind them. It was probably the teleporting platform, since travel had been authorized between Tengoku Junzi and Sorventh, and already parties of adventurers were beginning to come and take a look at the city and its facilities.

Of course, both Burlaug and General Li were extremely wary of such people, but Tengoku Junzi had always been a place where Players could freely enter to purchase and utilize its services and goods. In her eyes, there was little difference between the players of Yggdrassil and the adventurers of the new world, ecept in their levels and equipment.

Honestly, it was hard for her to consider the adventurers of this world as a credible threat. Even the largely decorative city guards would have very little trouble dealing with them if need be, not to mention General Li's Defensive troops.

She thought it would be nice to meet new people.

Maybe that evening, she would take a walk through town and mingle with the tourists.

~O~

Virulhaka Azriel, Heavenly King of Patience, was traveling east with a merchant caravan. To be accurate, she had walked into them late one evening while they were resting for the night, and after buying transport with them, she had been riding in the back of a wagon which had been quickly adapted for a passenger.

She didn't need to ask for such preferential treatment. It wasn't just that she had paid for her 'ticket' with one of those brand new bullion gold coins, she was also exceedingly beautiful and simply oozed elegance and grace. There was absolutely no doubt in anyone's minds that they had just picked up a extraoridinarily important person, somehow.

But despite the arrangements and accomodations made for her, she used very little of it. Instead, she quietly knelt in the exact center of the empty space, closed her eyes, and seemed to be deep in thought while waiting for the caravan to arrive wherever it was going.

"Miss, what's your name?" – Suddenly, a clear, yourthful voice rang into her ears, as a young girl had climbed unto her wagon and, after imitating the way she was sitting [1] for a whole whooping 7 seconds, leant forth and patted at Azriel's knee.

Of course, Virulhaka was aware of her presence, but judging her a insignificant threat, and since the child hadn't spoken to her before, she had simply ignored her up to that point.

"I am Virulhaka Azriel, Heavenly King of the south, and guardian of Patience." – she replied calmly to the girl that was staring at her from a couple inches away.

Well, to begin with, she didn't had a common adult's sense of personal space, so as long as the child wasn't a danger, Virulhaka didn't really mind having her around.

"King, shouldn't it be a queen? Are you a queen, Viru- Vir-ul-aka Azy-rail."

"It is a traditional title, and it can't be changed just for the convenience of its holder. And it is Virulhaka Azriel."

"Vir-ul-acca."

"Virulhaka Azriel"

"Virulacca?"

"Isn't Azriel easier to pronounce?"

"Ah, yes! !"

"Alright."

"I'm Messa!"

"Messy?"

"Messa!"

"Nii-san? That doesn't sounds right. You're a girl, correct?"

Of course, it was just Virulhaka's sense of humor, but she teased Messa for a little bit longer, then the child started asking her about everything she could think of.

And of course, the wagon's driver, the guards walking next to it, and a few others that approached when they realized someone was finally talking to their mysterious and beautiful guest, were all trying to overhear the conversation.

Messa was doing a thorough and merciless questioning in the manner children tend to, when the wagon suddenly stopped and screams came in from outside.

"What's happening?" – Messa crawled over towards the courtains separating the wagon's back from the driver's seat, and was poking her head in when Virulhaka pulled her back just enough for an arrow to miss her head.

"A group of armed people is attacking."

"Bandits!?"

"Oh, so they're bandits? I was wondering if I was actually with bad guys and they were guards or such."

"We're not bad guys!"

"I see, alright."

"Why would you think that!?"

"You shouldn't rush to judgments. Wait here, I'll get us moving again."

As another lost arrow flew in through the cloth covering the wagon, Virulhaka drew her [Blue Destiny] sword and used it to bounce the arrow back the way it came.

She jumped down from the wagon's back to the road, and looked around. Indeed, about a hundred or so mounted bandits were rushing everywhere between the wagons, cutting down the merchants and the guards, and dragging out the people hiding inside the wagons themselves.

The bandits that saw her, stopped at that very moment. Some fell off their horses, too distracted by her to pay proper attention.

"Dibs!" – called out one of the younger bandits as he rode towards her at full speed, wanting to grab her and throw her unto the back of his horse.

Well, whatever dreams he had, his horse passed Virulhaka without stopping, and he passed her with one less arm.

She had sliced clean off the arm he had stretced to grab her with, and he hadn't even noticed until he tried to straighten up and grab the reins again, at which point he cried out and fainted on his chair.

The bandits were slightly shocked, but they quickly recovered and rode towards Virulhaka at full speed, attempting to run her over and cut her down.

Seemingly weightless, the beauty in the colorful kimono leaped to the back of the first horse to approach her, and sliced its bandit's head clean off, before gracefully leaping to the next closest horse and repeating her swing.

A few moments later, every bandit in the area was dead on his chair or laying on the ground, and their horses were either running off with noone to stop them, or walking around in no rush.

Either because they saw the horses running off with their headless riders, or because they noticed how there was an area of noticeable silence, the bandits began moving towards Virulhaka's position, where they found almost a dozen bodies laying headless on the ground on pools of their own blood, while a uncanningly beautiful young woman in colorful clothes walked around undisturbed.

As if this was a manga from two centuries ago, a huge bandit appears!

Over almost 7" tall, with limbs as thick as apple trees, and a body wider than a wine barrel.

With huge fat hands that look as if they could pick up a man with ease.

A bald head with enough fat under its chin to make it look round.

Small, pig-like eyes, and a huge spiked metal club on his hand that looks as if it would be an ogre's dream weapon!

A huge, fat, strong man that seems to be the incarnation of violence.

Truly, this hog-man seems like he ran out of an 80's manga before the protagonist could tell him that he was already dead!

He's just missing the spiked metal pauldrons...

"Ora!? Pretty slut! What do you think you're doing, slut!?" – truly, he even spoke like someone who would squish a villager's head with his left hand just to show off how bad and tough he was before the hero went 'atatatatata!' on him and left him to explode after three seconds.

Virulhaka looked up at the sun-eclipsing mass of fat and muscles for a couple of seconds, then suddenly she had a bright expression that clearly showed off she just had an idea, and spoke to the bandit thus...

"Overweight gentleman, you seem to be lost. You are looking for my sister, Dhrutarashta Michaella, right?" – she said so with a refreshing smile that was somehow also full of pity.

"What? Why, who... who the fuck is that!?"

"Round sir, it seems your fat is clogging up your ears. I just said she was my sister."

"And who the fuck are you!?"

"I am Virulhaka Azriel, Heavenly King of the South and guardian of Patience."

"King, don't you mean queen?"

At this point, Messa poked her head out between the curtains at the back of the wagon, and explained...

"It is a traditional title, it can't be changed for the convenience of its current holder."

"Ah1? And who the fuck are you!?"

"I'm Messa. I'm six and a half."

"Ah!? Who the fuck cares who you are!?"

"But... you asked..." -Messa cried softly as the huge hog-man bellowed at the top of his lungs.

"Gentleman who-eats-too-much, please do not be violent towards children." – said Virulhaka

"Ah, sorry, I- why the fuck am I apologizing for!?"

At this point, the bandit's leader had had enough. His face was so red, it was spreading down his chest and shoulders now. Normally, you would say it was going down his neck, but since such a thing wasn't visible anywhere, that would be impossible on this case.

The pulshing veins on his forehead looked like they were about to burst. He cried out as he began running towards Virulhaka, swinging his mace over his head.

"I still think you are looking for Dhrutarashta, but I guess I can give it a try." – said Virulhaka as she saw the huge man running towards her.

From inside the wagons, those who had survived and were hiding, looked in despair at the mountain of fat and muscles that approached the exotic beauty at full speed.

It was a scene similar to that of an adult running towards a child, or maybe even like that of a bear chasing a rabbit?

"Ah, alright, then... " – Virulhaka wondered if she could actually do this, given the man's considerable size.

She was still thinking about it, when the bandit swinged his club at her location from high above, adding the full might of his weight into the blow and causing a explosion-like sound as his huge club smacked the ground. It was to the level of nearby wagons briefly jumping off the ground dur to the aftershock, and the horses needing to be calmed down by their riders.

Of course, the unattended horses simply ran away at full speed.

"How's that, uh!?" – he grunted as the dust began to clear off

"Boss, behind you." – commented one of the bandits

"What?"

"Behind you." – sounded Virulhaka's raspy voice – "But don't worry trying to turn around. You are already in two. No... that doesn't sounds as good... You are alrea- ah, now he's really already dead. It doesn't matters, then."

While she was talking, the bandit tried to turn around, but only the upper half of his body did so. As if he was an action figure with a poorly designed joint right at the middle, just his upper body spun so he was now facing Virulhaka while his legs were still facing forth. Since his hips weren't perfectly level, at this point his upper body slid down from his lower half, and fell to the ground.

"Yeah, Dhrutarashta does it better. I'm not really cut for catch phrases."

She reached a conclusion, and nodded with determination!

Then she looked at the remaining bandits and thought 'I can keep trying, right?'

That day, the bloody legend was born!

~O~

While Grumnir, Tazar and Albion pushed the giant spiders back with their shield wall, Kallisto flung spells at them and Cathya shot crossbow bolts.

They had returned from Tengoku Junzi and were busy taking on the giant spider's quest after practicing their new skills. The shield wall was solid and acted as a solid steel wall from behind which the men of the team had little problem stabbing at the monsters, easily enduring their charges and taking advantage of the openings thus generated.

In order to prevent them giant spiders from leaping over them and targetting the squishier members of the party, they quickly marched towards their lair's entrance and held their ground there, letting the otherwise deadly monsters waste their time trying to bite at their metallic shields.

"[Fireball]!" – chanted Kallisto as she released the fourth tier spell at the monsters in front of the iron wall.

Since it had a specific blast radius size, once you got used to it, it was easy to position the explosion so that it would just barely miss your own front line. Of course, it was quite nerve-wrecking for the men in said front line to weather the blast that they saw and felt right in front of them, but after the third time, they felt like they may actually get used to it.

"It's hard to shoot past them like this." – Cathya was having trouble to position bolts past the party front liners.

Well, this much was obvious since the spiders were not tall enough to stand out over the shield line. Sure, they were enormous for a spider, but they were still lower than a man, if much wider. This meant Cathya needed to go around them to shoot at them from the side or from behind, which was all but impossible in a tunnel like this.

"I know, right? ~la" – Said Lyann with a confident tone right before she nodded.

"You can't shoot either way..." – retorted Cathya

"Fuuu ...y-you meanie! ~sol"

Lyann whined a little bit, but she was smiling, playing the [Song of Astral Fire] in her violin in order to create a blast of fire similar to Kallisto's [Fireball] using her music rather than her attack spells.

Since coming out of the closet, so to speak, she had been a lot more liberal with her abilities, and revealed herself as a capable source of damage through music, greatly adding to the party's firepower.

Right now however, she was just happy they were still her friends.

Her [Song of Cosmic Fire] ended on a high note, and a enormous number of red and golden flowers bloomed in the middle of the spider's nest. They appeared in quick succession, then burst in a whirlwind of fire, music and flower petals that burnt anything they touched.

In order to keep a relatively low profile, she was still not using her attack spells, and limited herself to her [Bardic Music] abilities, which she could, without lying, explain were quite limited in how many times a day they could be used.

~O~

Juno found himself standing before the door of Virupaksa's (temporal) residence in Sorventh.

He had been standing there for about five minutes now.

Perhaps at some level, he hoped the strawberry-colored King would, for some reason, feel a need to talk to him some more, and open the door, looking for him along the street.

In such a event, he wanted to be right there.

That's the state he was in when he finally came back to his senses.

Juno wasn't a smitten schoolboy. He was a tough as nails adventurer that had loved and been loved, and seen his loved one die by a rakshasa's claws.

He was more than mature enough to understand his own feelings.

'She got me quite good' – he thought to himself with a smile.

Being in love, uh? It had been a while.

It felt nice, to feel like a stupid boy again, and hope for morning to come soon, so he could see her again.

Of course, he was a grownup now. There was no good reason he couldn't knock at the door, and talk to her again... except, there was no good reason he could think of, to explain why he'd knocked at her door.

What would they talk about?

Thus, he forced himself away from the door, and began walking home.

And inside the house, Virupaksa was leaning against the door, her forehead pressed against it, hoping he would knock...

~O~

Ren was fiddling with a scrying bowl inside the council room. Perhaps it would be necessary to explain first that making a scrying tool wasn't a particularly challenging task in Yggdrassil. You just needed a clean brass bowl (its size was up to you, really. How large of a screen do you need?), some water to fill it with, and a relatively simple ritual.

Its efficiency on the other hand, was entirely dependent on your level and [Spellcraft] skill, however.

There's also plenty of spells and rituals to enhance or block scrying, as well as items and certain class skills', but Ren didn't had the right job levels for that, nor was she specially trying to alter the functions of the scrying bowl at the time.

"Uhmm- la la!" – she hummed to herself as she got the simple tool to work, and began trying to direct it.

Unlike the [Scrying Mirror] that was so popular with Pks, the [Scrying Pool] had plenty of disadvantages. For example, it was unable to penetrate through even the thinnest barriers, so even a paper wall was a formidable obstacle. It also couldn't tell illusions from reality, and so almost any defensive wards or measures would be enough to trick it.

With all its limitations, it did had one important advantage, though. It was possible to cast up to second tier spells through it, and it had unlimited range, albeit it couldn't peek into other worlds. More importantly, as Ren had found out, it responded to her will automatically, so she didn't need to struggle with steering or directing it. She simply willed to observe a point, and as long as there were no obstructions, that spot was immediately shown to her.

Should one call it lucky, or just convenient? Since she was convinced Tengoku Junzi was the only bit of Yggdrassil that had made it into the new world, she was using a extremely simple, low level tool which wouldn't even get past a second tier illusion spell.

On the flip side, it was such a passive sensor, that it was just as likely not to trigger any defensive wards and spells a target may had prepared.

If you were familiar with military terms, it would be a passive sensor. For example, there are active and passive sensors on a fighter jet. Active sensors were the radar, the radio, and other electronic means of detecting your enemy. Of course, that very same jet would also have electronical countermeasures for such things, in the form of jammers, radar absorbing materials, and the like.

When a fighter pilot says he is going to switch to "passive sensors", what he is really saying is "I'm going to use my eyes." But that wouldn't sound nearly as official, so the military had come up with the term 'passive sensors' instead.

Thus, a scrying pool was simply a way to extend your eyesight beyond its normal range and direction. It created a invisible floating 'eyeball' that wouldn't get past even paper thin walls because it was physically impossible, and it wouldnt distinguish between reality and illusion unless you yourself had the ability to do so, but on the flip side, it wouldn't trigger wards or protections the way a more powerful spell would.

That's what Ren was using when she spotted a long, strange caravan past the mountains in the west, in the direction of the neighboring Slane Theocracy.

As her 'sensor' approached, she spotted a long group of people.

Most of them were on foot, with but a few on horseback, and four wagons near the middle of the group.

Once she moved the scrying pool's invisible sensor closer, she could see that there were two types of people in the caravan. That was, soldiers and prisoners, while the wagons were built almost solid, made of wood with metal reinforcing them here and there, as if their cargo was some extremely dangerous beast or criminal.

'Prison transport? Are they criminals?' – She moved the sensor closer still, and now she could look at the caravan as if she was standing right next to them as they passed.

She frowned as she realized, there were plenty of children amongst the folks in chains. No, not children, but small humanoids she recognized from Yggdrassil as gnomes, a very small race of humanoids which was barely about half as tall as a regular human.

Furthermore, none of theprisoners, unlike all of the soldiers, was human.

The concept of slavery was not alien to her, being a fan of fantasy books and games. But seeing it live was quite a different thing. When a soldier started kicking a fallen halfling while shouting at him to get up, she had enough.

Ren wasn't the hero type. She wasn't even particularly brave. She was a young math teacher for a prestigious Tokyo university, and had never before been exposed to violence in real life, not even during the normal games rambunctious children play while growing up.

She had been quite content to let Lyann be the brave one going out into the world, and done her best to stop her sister from imitating their friend, but something inside her started to boil when she saw the Theocracy soldier kick the chained and helpless gnome to death.

She couldn't hear what was going on, and for that, she was grateful, but when the soldier kicked his tiny prisoner hard enough to break its neck, she could swear she heard a sickening crunching sound.

"[Gate]!" – she had no idea what she was doing, but by the time she could think about it, she was on the scene.

~O~

All of a sudden, a gold and white whirpool of energy had come into existence next to the road, and before anyone could react to it, an angel had stepped forth.

There was no doubting the nature of the being to emerge from the [Gate], as even the dullest of those present could understand its exalted nature.

Her long, midnight black hair floated in the wind, making one wonder just how light and soft it had to be for this weak breeze to pick it up like that. Her figure was covered by a small and simple white dress, gently exposing her dreamy figure, and her white wings glowed with light that could only be described as holy.

Far from the friendly visage she had shown during her missions as ambassador in the Dragonix Kingdom, however, her appearance was terrifying, as in Yggdrassil angels posessed a righteous aura that would intimidate and terrify enemies weaker than themselves.

Well, back in the game, it was a relatively weak effect that was almost flavor text, since no mob would ever attack a player exceeding its own level by 10 or more, same as it had been in practically every online game for over a century now, but right here and now, for those she deemed as her enemies, the effect was nearly enough to petrify their bodies and stun their will.

Furthermore, being a normal, functioning member of society, Ren was ill-prepared for playing a hero. She wrecked her head trying to come up with something to say now that she stood next to the caravan.

On Yggdrassil, she had been a dram builder, and moreover, a roleplayer.

Yes, that's right. She had no idea on what to say, but she could play the part of Celi Malefactor, and act as she felt one of the three rulers of Tengoku Junzi would.

"Woe unto you, who would chain your fellow sentients and drive them like beasts, for you are least than beasts before my eyes! Rejoice, you who have been bound, for deliverance is at hand!" – She wasn't a timid person. She was used to handling classrooms full of rowdy students, after all, but even so, she could still feel goosebumps running up and down her spine due to what she just said.

With the sound of her voice, tens of tiny fingers grasped at the small slits that acted as air holes and windows in the reinforced wagons. Guessing that they were full of gnome children, Ren could feel her briefly waning rage boil all over again.

But, she wasn't a combat class.

With levels in almost nothing but crafting jobs and classes, Celi Malefactor had very little firepower by herself, but it could also be said that she had almost mastered all crafting jobs and classes. While she certainly ouldn't match the pure firepower of a pure boomstick-type sorcerer or crit-hunting warrior, she wasn't helpless, specially when compared to the strength of this world's inhabitants.

However, she was never the type to engage in combat herself to begin with!

"Come forth, Aegis." – the angel called forth.

On her command, magic gathered and in a single moment to bring forth "Aegis," Ren's highest level personal effigy/summon and bodyguard, a construct warrior made and reinforced with the very best materials she could collect during 10+ years of playing Yggdrassil.

It looked as if a giant was wearing studded, reinforced, crenellated armor. Quite honestly, it was more of a fortress in humanoid shape than a golem, quite literally, once Ren opened her wings and flew to sit behind the crenellated 'walls' that made up its crown.[2]

"Wh- ..." – the soldiers couldn't endure it anymore, and most of them broke and run in every direction.

Even those who couldn't see Ren arrive, could certainly see the gigantic Aegis from way back in the caravan's rear.

The beasts pulling the wagons began to howl and became agitated, so Ren used a 2nd level [Calm Emotions] and quickly cooled down their mood. Since it was an area spell, it also affected the slaves and the two remaining soldiers.

[Nee-chan, can you hear me?] – Ren contacted Mako through thelepathy with a [Message]

[What is it?]

[Where are you?]

[I'm outside the city, with the children.]

[That's perfect, I'm going to open a [Gate] near your position, please make sure the children don't wander too close.]

[What? Where are you?]

[I'll explain soon. Can you send some troops through? I need them to drive some wagons.]

[...alright]

"You two" – she said to the remaining soldiers – "You are coming with me."

~O~

Author Notes:

Ah, this was a pretty short final bit, but when you look at all three parts of this chapter put together, it really was a long one, uh? Well, with next chapter, we will go back to Nazarick's side of the story. I's also like to point out that I feel I learnt a lot about writing Overlord style thanks to this fic so far, so now that the prologue is complete and everyone is in place, we will begin to follow a single storyline at a time from now on. Two at the most.

Incidentally, a friend asked me where my fanfic was so I sent him to and told him to look for it on the overlord category, but he couldnt find it, even though he was looking for it by name, so I decided to look for it myself and give him the link to it... and I couldn't find it either.

It took about two days of searching for us to figure out that you need to go to the Overlord section then the Overlord Crossovers subsection, then pick the Dungeons & Dragons sub-subsection in order to find it, so, I'm like "how the hell has anyone found it?"

That's not all. The default search excludes those stories with an M rating, which this fanfic has, so you ALSO need to manually include M-rated stories on your search. I really wonder how the hell did we manage to get 6100+ views...

Well, on the other side, like Lyann would say, "We are Numbah One! ~la." Because if you are the only one in your category, you are #1 by default, right? Min-maxing? Yea. Ruleslawyering? Damn right! But that's pretty much the reason to be of this fanfic, isn't it?

Thus, I want to thank you for ever reading this fic in the first place. It must have been hard to find. Even I had a ton of problems trying to do so. Let's enjoy it together in the future as well.

We have reached the end of the beginning, but are nowhere near the beginning of the end!

[1] Seiza, I'm sure you know what it is. But if not, google it.

[2] If you ever played Lineage II, think of a Siege Golem.


End file.
